^{Phone Box on Ladcastle Road Dobcross (Paul Anderson) / CC BY-SA 2.0}

What's red, useless, sits on the street and could be yours for £2,000? No, not Andy Carroll but if you want to fork out a wedge of cash for something similar, then BT are once again flogging off their red phone boxes.

The grand red K6 boxes are testament to the mobile revolution that has swept the world over the past decade. Who needs to fumble around for 10p pieces to make a call, when everyone carries a mobile?

According to BT's figures, the number of calls made from payphones has dropped 80 per cent in the past five years, and six out of ten phone boxes lose money.

Little wonder then that those in charge of BT's payphone business have looked at alternative ways to make money.

“Now you can buy a  twentieth century design icon that’s famous around the world for your home or garden or you could even buy one as a gift for the person you know who has everything,” gushed Katherine Ainley, general manager for BT payphones, announcing the sell off.

It's not the first time BT has sold off its red phone boxes – it got rid of a load back in the 1980s, when it realised that horrible-looking plastic cubicles were far cheaper to maintain.

And other companies have been selling the phone boxes ever since – usually at eye-watering prices.

Meanwhile, BT has for the past four years been offering local communities a chance to “adopt” a red phone box – although the cost for doing so is a meagre £1, rather than the near £2,000 it would cost to buy one.

But as the internet age gathers pace, it seems likely that BT's kiosks won't be the only bit of red street furniture destined for the history books. Surely it can't be too much longer before the Royal Mail starts flogging off post boxes too?

The endless debates around web site blocking and piracy continues to rumble on, with no consensus on the best ways to approach the issue, as internet service providers (ISPs) and right holders continue to clash.

At a Westminster Forum event on Thursday, which brought together numerous stakeholders to discuss the issue, many said that blocking web sites was not the right answer to the problem, and that what is needed is a change in internet users' attitudes.

Consumer Focus senior policy advocate, Saskia Walzel, highlighted the pointlessness of site blocking, arguing most people just find ways to circumvent the blocks, a point backed up by BT Group head of internet policy Mita Mitra.

"We often assume this takes a lot of technical knowledge but actually an awful lot of people will find solutions to the blocks," she said.

"Instead of talking about whether blocking web sites will be effective, maybe we should instead think about how people want to consume content and how to respond to this."

PRS for Music regulatory and corporate affairs director, Francis Lowe, made a simple but sensible suggestion based on research by the organisation that more than half of consumers find pirated material through search engines but many do not know the difference between legal and illegal sites.

As such, she proposed a "traffic light" system that could be implemented by search engines to alert consumers to illegal content. Legitimate results would be flagged with a green dot, while illegal sits would have a red dot.

However, a Google spokeswoman in the audience piped up to say that such a system may not work as search engines would not be able to tag start-ups and new businesses fast enough.

Despite this, Google has previously said it will work to reduce copyright infringement in its search results, and the firm has taken the word "torrent" out of its predictive text for searches, so it clearly has the ability to help where it can.

Ultimately, though, it's just another day of debate and conjecture with those involved no closer to a system they are happy (enough) to work together on in order to tackle piracy.

The demand for high-speed internet access on the go shows no signs of abating, and Virgin Media has seen that it could capitalise on this market by offering a free Wi-Fi service in London.

Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett explained in an earnings call that a free Wi-Fi service is on the company's agenda as part of its work to innovate in the broadband market.

"We continue to run our pilots and trials, and we are in quite advanced conversations with some boroughs and councils in respect to completing a metro rollout in parts of the London area," he said.

"The proposition would be that we would provide free Wi-Fi access for all at 0.5Mbit/s with full access to Virgin Media customers up to 10Mbit/s, and we may consider speaking to mobile network operators about wholesaling that as an activity."

Berkett added that the "punt" is exciting given the demand for better mobile internet speeds. "I think it is a real opportunity if you think about consumers' needs for data outside the home," he said.

The revelation is interesting as it shows how broadband providers are boosting their offerings with better internet access on the go, much as O2 is doing with free Wi-Fi in its stores.

BT, which has held sway in the outdoor public Wi-Fi market through its paid-for Fon and Openzone products, will not doubt be watching with interest to see whether Virgin goes ahead with its plan as the two broadband giants prepare to clash again.

One thing is for certain: visitors to London for the 2012 Olympics will be hoping that the networks are up and running to provide internet access as they cruise the capital looking for information on where to eat, what to see and which tube lines are broken.

It's been a busy week for the broadband industry, especially when it comes to closing the digital divide, with the fixed, mobile and satellite sectors all making a case to help solve key problems and get the entire UK digital.

First up, the satellite industry made its play for increased funding from member states and the European Commission by arguing that the technology is ideal for closing the digital divide in the remotest of regions.

Then mobile operator Everything Everywhere announced a partnership with BT to deliver a 4G trial network in Cornwall for 200 lucky volunteers.

Jersey Telecom Group and Alcatel-Lucent, meanwhile, announced the trial of an LTE network on Jersey and Guernsey in the 1800MHz band that could offer speeds of up to 50Mbit/s.

Rural MPs recently argued that the use of mobile broadband on LTE networks is key piece of the digital divide jigsaw, urging Ofcom to enhance coverage obligations on operators that win key 4G spectrums from 95 to 98 per cent.

More good news for Cornwall came from BT with the announcement on Friday that its project to bring superfast broadband to every resident in the county, part funded with EU money, is on schedule.

Half of all exchanges in the region are set to go live in 18 months' time in areas including Falmouth, Truro, Camborne and Redruth, while St Austell is head of the queue with exchange upgrades scheduled for this summer.

More widely, rumours circulated this week that BT is behind on its rollout of fibre to the premises (FTTP) owing to blocked ducts, although the company said that any delays are down to the sheer complexity of the rollouts and that work is moving as quickly as possible.

"FTTP is a complex technology which we are currently trialling at scale. We are pleased with how the trials are going, but have always been clear that we will only launch it on a commercial basis once it's been fully tested and is ready for market," the firm said.

Finally, homes and businesses in Wiltshire, Norfolk, Somerset and Devon had reason to cheer when it was announced that they will receive a portion of the second wave of government funding for broadband of £50m.

So, with all three industries pushing ahead, whether through political pressure, unique trials, live rollouts or securing government funding, the UK's broadband market certainly doesn't want for effort at trying to get everyone online with high speed access by 2015.