Caerphilly County Borough is set to lose just under half of its public pay phones under proposals by BT.
The county borough currently has 92 pay phones on its streets, but BT want to get rid of 41 because of falling use.
Public phones in Nelson, Hengoed, Maesycwmmer, Aberbargoed, Bargoed, Blackwood, Abercarn, Crumlin, Rhymney, Fochriw, Caerphilly town, Senghenydd and others face being disconnected and removed by next year.
BT has begun a consultation period which ends on December 3.
A spokeswoman for the company said: “BT is committed to providing a public pay phone service, but with usage declining by over 90% in the last decade, we’ve continued to review and remove pay phones which are no longer needed.
“Any removal of pay phones is carried out in strict adherence to the Ofcom guidelines and, where appropriate, with the consent of local authorities.
“In all instances where there’s no other pay phone within 400 metres, we’ll ask for consent from the local authority to remove the pay phone. Where we receive objections from the local authority, we won’t remove the pay phone.
“As an alternative to removal, we will continue to actively promote our ‘Adopt a Kiosk’ scheme to all councils whilst being committed to maintaining the pay phones that remain.
“There are 92 pay phones across the area and we’re consulting on the removal of 41 of them.”
According to BT, of the 41 phone boxes whose number could be up, 18 have had no calls made from them within the last 12 months.
The pay phone which had the most calls made is outside St Luke’s Surgery in Gwyddon Road. Abercarn.
In the last 12 months, 168 calls were made – an average of around a call every two days.
Phone boxes faced with disconnection will have a notice placed in them asking the public to have their say on the removal.
The number of public pay phones has been falling for a number of years.
In 2003, there were 153 pay phones in Caerphilly County Borough.