Former state-owned telecoms firm KPN is to stop operating public pay phones because the rise of the mobile phone has made them almost unnecessary, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

KPN had a legal obligation to provide one pay phone per 5,000 inhabitants until 2008. Since then it has removed thousands of loss-making phones, the company said.
Advertising firm Hillenaar is joining forces with RBL Telecom to operate phone boxes in villages and other places which want to keep them, KPN said.