SOUTHAMPTON'S streets and parks could be thrust into the 21st century with new futuristic phone boxes and free superfast wifi.

Communications giant British Telecom (BT) wants to scrap 32 of the city's old telephone booths and replace them with 16 new high-tech devices.

Named "InLink" boxes, the touch-screen telephones will provide free calls and beam superfast 1Gbps wifi to devices within its 100 metre range.

The new telephone boxes will also provide smartphone charging ports, a 999 button and maps and information about services in the area.

It is believed the project could cost in the region of £800,000.

Proposals have been lodged with city planning chiefs to install the devices across the city centre, including on the High Street, Above Bar Street and even Houndwell Park.

City council leader, Simon Letts, described the touch-screen telephones as an "excellent addition" to Southampton.

"The new boxes will be a real positive for the city because they offer those extra services," he said.

"I think the fact that they also provide useful information for visitors and tourists will also be a positive.

"They will act like little tourist information centres."

Cllr Letts added: "It will also be nice to get rid of the scrappy and horrible telephone boxes across the city – which are sadly often used as public conveniences."

Southampton will be the first city in the south, outside of London, to get the high-tech devices – which cost up to £50,000 each.

The InLink boxes were originally rolled out in the capital last year and according to BT have proved a "hit" with Londoners.

The smart city technology, entirely powered by renewable energy, has so far attracted more than 49,000 subscribers to its Wi-Fi service.

So far, subscribers have used enough data to download more than seven million songs.

Users have also made more than 305,000 calls and there have been more than 239,000 sessions on the information tablet.

This week, BT announced the launch of its 100th InLink device – describing it as a "significant milestone" in the project.

The Telecom giant plans to roll out a further 650 across the UK in the near future.

Neil Scoresby, BT’s general manager for Payphones and InLink, said: “We’re really excited by InLinkUK from BT and the popularity of its services, such as free ultrafast Wi-Fi and free calls, show that it’s proving a hit with customers as well.

"We’re in discussion with many local councils about installing more InLinks and we’re looking forward to rolling out InLinks to more London boroughs and major cities across the UK.”

The InLink project is part of BT's plan to scrap 20,000 telephone boxes in the UK by 2022.

According to the company, phone booth usage has dropped by 90 per cent over the last decade.

The cost of maintaining the boxes is estimated at £6m each year.

However the booths are still used by some groups, including the elderly and people who can't afford mobile phones.

Campaigners have also fought to keep the traditional red telephone boxes in place.

Many of the traditional booths have been transformed and preserved under the Adopt a Kiosk scheme.

The project allows councils and community groups to buy the phone boxes for just £1 from BT.

Under the scheme, more than 4,000 kiosks have been repurposed as mini-libraries and art galleries or to house defibrillation machines, information centres, shops and exhibitions.