TALK the talk: Payphone Booth in Malaysia (part 2)

The Stand of Public Phone Booth

Common found public phone booth on this project often made up by a payphone surrounded by a shelter and supported upright by an aluminium (possible aluminium alloy) or concrete stand. An aluminium stand is often designed in a simple form while concrete stand may be engraved with pattern.

i. Aluminium

Aluminium is a metal with corrosion resistant, shiny silver surface, soft and ductile. It can be alloyed to improve its strength. Pure aluminium is often extracted from bauxite. Aluminium is lightweight and easy to form shape, which sometimes a better material than steel. It is corrosion free, which is suitable to use at outdoor. The weakness of aluminium is its physical strength. However it can be improved when fusing with alloying agent.

ii. Concrete

Concrete is a composite material composed of coarse granular material (the aggregate or filler) embedded in a hard matrix of material (the cement or binder) that fills the space among the aggregate particles and glues them together. It is very strong to withstand heavy impact, weather resistant and less costly. The main weakness of concrete is its weight, low tensile strength and it can crack if shrinkage occurred.

Left figure shows a payphone booth with aluminium stand, right figure is a concrete stand phone booth.

TALK the talk: Payphone Booth in Malaysia (part 1)

The following article is about the study of payphone booth in Malaysia.


Outdoor public phone booth in Malaysia mostly can be found in big city or small town. It is usually designed in partially enclosure shelter. The number of public phone booth in Malaysia is decreasing due to the rise of usage of mobile phone, which make public phone unlikely often used by citizen nowadays. Most of the public payphone found are branded helo, a product by Pernec, a corporation leads in telecommunication and information technology. Other phone booth brand included TM (Telekom Malaysia), a government-run telecommunication company.