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Requiem for the Disappearing Pay Phone

Posted by timothy on from the endangered-species dept.

StarEmperor writes "This Washington Post article describes the steady disappearance of pay phones as cell phones become more commonplace. Many pay phones, which used to generate hundreds of dollars per month in revenue, are now used so infrequently that they cost money to operate. I wonder what kind of environmental hazard is posed by junking thousands of pay phones?"

9 of 504 comments (clear)

  1. You wonder about the wrong thing... by Marton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... payphones are great to have in an emergency - and there are tens of millions of people in the US w/o a cellphone.

    The real question is: are they going to keep operating those phones that lose them money? Should payphones be thought of as something essential like public transportation, and possibly subsidized by the govt?

    1. Re:You wonder about the wrong thing... by newt · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Should payphones be thought of as something essential like public transportation, and possibly subsidized by the govt?

      They are in most countries (either directly as a public service, or indirectly as a consequence of the fact that the Government usually owns the phone company).

      It's only in the US that payphones depend on the corporate whim of a for-profit company.

      - mark

      --

      -----
      I tried an internal modem, but it hurt when I walked.

    2. Re:You wonder about the wrong thing... by tswinzig · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They are in most countries (either directly as a public service, or indirectly as a consequence of the fact that the Government usually owns the phone company).

      It's only in the US that payphones depend on the corporate whim of a for-profit company.

      You make it sound like its a bad thing.

      Why should my tax money go to help someone loser make a free phone call?

      I don't have a problem with the government installing emergency phone booths that are wired to 911 for things like that, but I'll pass on footing the bill for someone else's calls... they get enough of my money as it is!

      --

      "And like that ... he's gone."
  2. Re:where can I get one? by rickthewizkid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They are available online, ebay, etc. The only trouble is, they have been "adjusted" to not require coins. If you were to want to make it a real pay phone, you would need the totalizer circuitry (not something the phone cos want to have in the wild ... look up the term "red box") and a ACTS phone line - convincing the telco to do that for you would be difficult....

    Just my 90-cents-for-the-first-three-minutes-worth...
    Ric kTheWizKid

  3. Re:pay phones might get more use if by neema · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This should be modded up.

    That was such a stupid step to take, unless they were looking for everyone to add just one more thing to the list of the benefits of having a cell phone. Payphones always have had two advantages in my mind:

    1: They are wired, hence, no fuzz.
    2: Just one shiny thing and you could get a call through.

    Now that it's 50 cents, I find myself approaching a payphone and finding that I don't have the right amount of change on me. Who cares that it's unlimited? The three minute limit was just fine by me. I'm not exactly making leisure calls at a pay phone. The trade off is ridiculous and is bound to doom the payphones.

  4. Re:The environmental hazard of removing payphones by kevcol · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I only agree if the cell user is not using a headset and using a phone with special hands free dialing features. Otherwise, we might as well ban conversation between 2 or more occupants of a car.

  5. Don't trash; upgrade! by adamp3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They should convert them into WiFi hotspots.

  6. mailboxes are disappearing too by phr1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    San Jose Mercury story: hundreds of mailboxes removed from San Francisco bay area, due to low usage, garbage thrown in mailboxes, fear of more anthrax attacks, etc. etc. I can't help worrying about all anonymous means of communication shutting down.

  7. How about trashing cellphones? by MacAndrew · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder what kind of environmental hazard is posed by junking thousands of pay phones?

    How about junking hundreds of thousands or millions of cellphones. Plus the batteries each unit may go through in a lifetime. There's no way those things last as long as a nice clunky pay phone. I know we have a couple of dead ones around here somewhere, and a lot of people upgrade simply for fashion or features.

    Yes, people are looking into recycling the phones. It's difficult because the materials are so heterogeneous, and though a few like tantalum are quite valuable, the labor to break up the phones can outweigh that. A nicer idea -- hand-me-downs to less wealthy developing countries, for sale or parts. Cellular phones have a disproportionate value in countries that never got the telephone line infrastructure in the first place.