When was the last time you used a pay phone?
Pay Phones Suffer As Cell Phone Use Rises
With rising cell phone use and vandalism and neglect taking their toll, pay phones are disappearing around the nation. Consumer activists and advocates for the poor have protested the drop in numbers – saying that public phones are necessary in emergencies and represent a lifeline for those who can’t afford a cell phone or even a landline.
“If you have a cell phone, you hardly look for the pay phones,” said 25-year-old Sayed Mizan, listening to his iPod on a subway platform. “Besides, most of the time if you see the pay phones, they’re either out of order or they’re too filthy to touch.”
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Nationwide, the number of pay phones has dropped by half to approximately 1 million over the last nine years, according to an estimate by the American Public Communications Council, a trade association for independent pay phone operators.
A full 7.1 percent of the nation’s households had no phone of any kind in November 2005, up from 4.7 percent three years earlier, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Used one last week in Lubec, Maine… no cell coverage there at all!
February 18, 2003. That’s the date I made my last payphone call. And I also remember it as the last time I missed picking up a friend because we confused the location – it turned out we I was on the lower level of a subway/bus pickup area, and she was on the upper level, we each waited an hour.
I got my first cellphone 3 months later.
I’m suprised this isnt a story from 5 years ago.
Used my last one in 2002 at Camp Lejeune, NC.
So what now, the aclu will sue phone companies to force them to put up payphones ( “advocates for the poor have protested the drop in numbers”)
I am sorry but they are not needed, lets say there is an emergency with a homeless person, most people will still call 911 on the homeless persons behalf. And given that a good percentage homeless people are people that were kicked out of mental institutions since the aclu got it declared unconstitutional to keep them there if they commit crimes, and they are unfit to care for themselves, they probably do not even know to dial 911 if they have a problem.
5: Are you telling me that only homeless people can’t afford cellphones or landlines? And that they only need to use the phone in an emergency?
Last time I used a pay-phone – 10 years ago! Last time I actually SAW one – a few weeks ago – I even pointed that out to my friends!
There’s a few left, but they’re very different – there’s no door, no privacy… Can’t really understand why…
So what now, the aclu will sue phone companies to force them to put up payphones ( “advocates for the poor have protested the drop in numbers”)
Michael, just an FYI, but FCC regulations do require access to public telephones. Second, because the ACLU is interested in First Amendment cases, perhaps you could explain what first amendment this violates?
And given that a good percentage homeless people are people that were kicked out of mental institutions since the aclu got it declared unconstitutional to keep them there if they commit crimes, and they are unfit to care for themselves, they probably do not even know to dial 911 if they have a problem.
So what is your point? You did pretty good for a run on sentence, but we don’t judge grammar here. The ACLU had nothing to do with releasing mental patients into the community. Or are you just throwing crap at the ACLU trying to make a truly worthwhile volunteer organization look bad.
Michael –
I don’t know how it is in other countries, but the reason that public phones in the USA are no longer in booths is because someone was in one when a truck crashed into it, and he sued AT&T (then the national monopoly) because he claimed he couldn’t get the door open in time to escape from the truck.
Sorry, that was to Miguel, not Michael.
On the plus side, before cell phones drivers would have to pull off the road to use a pay phone and people would have to leave the dining area or movie theater to find a pay phone if they needed to make a call. 🙂
I quit using payphones and gave up my pager when I was mindlessly kicking around gravel while on the phone and noticed a used needle at my feet.
#12, Bryan, you are very correct.
(from the ACLU’s site explaining their mandate)
…Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which consists of the original ten amendments ratified in 1791, plus the three post-Civil War amendments (the 13th, 14th and 15th) and the 19th Amendment …
http://tinyurl.com/qerph
I don’t miss pay phones but I sure miss PHONE BOOTHS!
“Pay phones are operated by private companies who have to make a profit. ” says it all. Things don’t exist in the private industry if they don’t make a buck. If you want the opposite, you can move to a communist country where all the wages are split regardless. The essence of capitalism (a good thing by the way) is making a product that makes money.
Im surprised that of 15 comments, only Nirendra seems to support pay phones. We defn need pay phones.
Even if you dont care about the homeless, or just people who cant afford/dont need a mobile phone; pay phones are of use to mobile phone users as well. How many times has your battery run out?
Pay phones are a important for travel as well, look at any train/bus/air transport center, those phones are still used (perhaps not as much as before, but still fill a vital role).
Tourist traveling abroad often use pay phones, most travelers dont make enough calls to justify renting phones for their trips. Movie theaters and malls, kids and young teens who dont have mbiles yet use these phones.
Thats aside from the obvious utility during emergencies. There is a reason that doctors still carry pagers…
I’m starting an national Save The Whales and PayPhones drive. Everyone please send me $100 to be carefully placed in a large jar that only by coincidence contains my Emergency Beer Fund cash.
1. Payphone havent been setup for YEARS, by the phone companies.
They are setup by private citizans and Business to MAKE MONEY. thats the way it was in Portland Or.
2. Any land line is better, more secure, and almost ALWAYS THERE. Even in a power failure land lines are backed up for 48+ hours worth of power.
3. they get more use at Hotel/motels then anywhere else, AND they are somewhat private, as tracing a payphone is the END of a link, they dont know WHOM used it last, 1 of 30+ people could of used it to call someone.
4. in many small towns we cant find them anymore. but the cost was going up anyway.
Well, I’m not living in the US, but how much of the 7.1% of households that has no phone has a non-registered cell phone? (Pay up-front with phone cards???)
Fabrizio Marana
d2nds (#17): let’s say you owned a business. Would you perpetually pump money into something if it didn’t make a profit (and all indications said that it will never make a profit again)?
yes, yes, yes…for the good of humanity and all. That’s all nice an goody goody, but we don’t live in that world.
rwillians254: we actually do sort of live in that world. Most utilities (phone included) partake in less profitable practices due to the fact that they are providing a utility, usually mandated by government regulation (gas companies are regulated regarding shutting off heat during winter, discount rates for low-income users, etc).
Regardless of our beliefs on the issue; general practice seems to be that government forces private business to provide some “essential” services even if not the most profitable for the company. In this framework, i think phone companies should continue to operate pay phones.
It generally isnt profitable to add handicap accessiblility (to buildings, software, consumer devices, whatever) yet business and government (rightfully) continue to provide these services. Its not all about profit.
#21 and #22 – Rwilliams, you seem to thinking that we live under a capitalist government, which we don’t if only because capitalism isn’t a form of government. It isn’t a communist idea to provide services to the citizens of a country through the government, nor is it a communist idea that businesses in the utility game meet certain requirement that entail making sure essential services are available to everyone.
Maybe pay phones aren’t profitable, but the rest of the telecom industry is and can easily subsidize a few pay phones without jeopardizing the $20mil salary of some CEO somewhere.
In a country which has operated with a reasonably successful economy, a capitalist and effectively free market economy, for over 230 years, it never ceases to amaze me to read folks defend capitalism so ferociously, when in fact, it isn’t really under attack.
At my business (I operate a small airport) I had to pay Bell South around $100 a month just to have their Payphone in our pilot area…three years ago they (Bell South) told me they were getting out of the pay-phone business so I had to purchase my own phone and install it. I’m happy to say that after reading this post I found the keys and went to the phone to find almost $9.00 there! at this rate I will pay for the phone in 150 years…
My point is some places need a public access phone and payphones do not make a profit. Perhaps some inexpensive phones scattered around cities and rural areas with free access to toll-free numbers and emergency services.
I’ve seen similar call boxes in europe.
Payphones made since when the phone company as still a monopoly…
After the breakup, you had all kinds of companies who wouldn’t accept each-others calling cards – or if they did – would gouge you for a couple of bucks to make the call -plus- charging you for minutes used. I don’t miss that at all.
Kinda like the ATMs that would charge you a fee for using them, and then your own bank would charge you for using an out-of-network ATM.
I remember being surprised – way back in the early 90’s – when a co-worker of mine joined Amway. One of the things they were encouraged to sell was payphones and home alarms systems.
I’ve always wondered how many of the payphones I’ve seen over the years were owned/installed by some Amway person…
james hatsis: Im not sure what the traffic at your airport is like, but im guessing its mostly private planes since you have your phone in the pilot area. Dont you think that providing a phone (pay phone or public access phone) is kind of an essential service for an airport? Granted, your are probably not going to collect alot of coins (calling cards, collect calls, etc. are likely in a transport setting), but it should be looked at as a cost of doing business.
Do you have public restrooms? do they generate a profit?
#19 ECA –
Any land line is better, more secure…
Cellphones are more secure than landlines. It’s much easier to tap into a landline than a cellphone.
I used to use the pay phones that use coins, now they’re being replaced by the ones that use prepaid cards, I really hate those…
Angel (#28)…what you mean homeless people can’t use them now.
Welp, there goes the reason number 1.
The gov’t, as a subsidiary of whatever cell phone company, could issue every citizen with a basic free cell phone. It would have 911 service. Whether it also came with minutes or credits would be up to the promo department of the boss company. With this easy step, there is no moral need to maintain payphones. And oh by the way, the cell phone number is your permanent personal ID number. Who needs hobnail boots to institute state control when everyone wants a free new gadget? Apologies to Firesign Theatre, and Kornbluth’s Space Merchants.
The homeless folks just love it when somebody installs a payphone close to their cardboard mansions; it’s a readily available source of income. Kind of like a Vegas slot, you hit it just right with a hammer and the coins fall right into your grimey, outstretched hands.