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Recycling Pay Phones into Terminals

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the not-a-bad-idea dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Two weeks ago, The Washington Post published a story about the death of the pay phone. It was aptly named "Requiem for the Pay Phone." Basically, it argued that as cell phones use increase, pay phones are retired from the streets. Now, according to Fortune in "Making Pay Phones Pay," Bell Canada is trying to change this situation. "Bell Canada recently started converting public pay phones in Toronto, Montreal, and Kingston into terminals for 'Wi-Fi' Internet connections. Some U.S. phone companies may soon follow suit." Check this column for more details and concerns or visit the Bell Canada's AccessZone page for details on the program and pilot locations."

4 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Ok but by TerryAtWork · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When will we see the utopian frog-on-a-lilly-pad wi-fi stuff I read about in Wired?

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    It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
  2. How about 911? by Ryu2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just thought of this.... Could it be a point of argument that removing pay phones reduces access to 911 emergency services for those economically disadvantaged who don't have cell phones? Have there been any studies done to test the validity of this (eg, crime rates vs. pay phone presence?)

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    There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
  3. Cafe Security by HealYourChurchWebSit · · Score: 4, Insightful



    While this plan isn't without its merits, its also going to be without users such as myself for some time. No matter show secure the "FI"delity is stated, I get about the same warm fuzzies transmitting anything of any value over such a system as I would shopping online at an internet cafe.

    And its not really the systems themselves that concern me, but the human error factors ... and mostly privacy factors. I can't imagine any large corporation implementing such a system without the temptation of at least using my demographics, if not outright selling any non-secure personal information to me to the highest bidder.

    This not to say I'd never use it ... just not for anything really important or private. At least for now.

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    --- have you healed your church website?
  4. Maybe by Znonymous+Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe people like me would use the pay phone more if it were 10 cents per a call, not 50-75 cents like it is now. And maybe I would have a "land line" phone in my home if it weren't nearly $50 a month after taxes, FCC feens, 911 imposed fee, etc.

    Or, the monolpy phone companies can just coninue to loose money and customers to cell phones.

    [/rant]

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    Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.