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BT’s Smart Hubs look fine, but no one ever uses them

Unlike Geoff Burgess (Letters, Issue 713), I don’t mind the design of BT’s Smart Hubs (pictured below). They’re hardly design classics like red phone boxes, but they have a certain futuristic charm – if only because they remind me of the monolith in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

My objection to the Hubs is that no one ever uses them. There’s one outside the shop where I work in Swindon. It’s been there several years and I’ve never seen anyone use it to charge their phone nor make a call. I doubt anyone uses it for free Wi-Fi either. In fact, the only possible use I can think of is for me rushing outside to phone 999 when shoplifters strike!

Frankly, if the Incredible Hulk picked it up like a domino and threw it to Bristol I doubt anyone would notice it had gone.

Gareth Jones

Pay to avoid adverts? We’ve always done it with the BBC!

Lots of readers have complained recently about streaming services charging to remove adverts, but UK viewers have been doing this for years already. It’s called the licence fee. We pay that to fund the BBC so it doesn’t have to rely on adverts.

The BBC says this helps it maintain independence. Streaming services say it helps them fund quality content. But while the principle is different, the effect is the same: you’re paying to remove adverts to receive a better service.

The other big difference is that we’ve never known a time without the licence fee. It feels normal paying for it. The mistake streaming services made was not having paid-for advert-free tiers when they launched. By introducing them many years later, they feel like a cynical money-grabbing ploy that alienates viewers.