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AT&T To Decommission Pay Phones

Posted by Zonk on from the death-by-cell-phone dept.

oahazmatt writes "According to MarketWatch, AT&T said that its pay phones will be phased out over the next year. A company spokeswoman declined to say how much revenue its pay-phone business generated, but the number is small and declining. 'The first public pay-telephone station was set up in 1878, just two years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the talking device. The first coin-operated pay phone was installed in Hartford, Conn., in 1889. For decades after the pay phone's invention, many Americans relied on them because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining reliable home service. Only after World War II did the telephone become a household necessity.'"

17 of 470 comments (clear)

  1. Just great! by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now where is Superman supposed to change?

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    1. Re:Just great! by phobos13013 · · Score: 3, Funny

      And where exactly do I ask you is Tony Soprano supposed to call in his hits from now? He cant use his freaking cell phone... fongu!

      --
      ...and it should be known by now
    2. Re:Just great! by mulvane · · Score: 2, Funny

      How the hell am I supposed to get out of the Matrix and back to the real world if they take away half the hardlines that tie into the matrix.

  2. Took them long enough. by cyberworm · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's about phreaking time.

  3. Re:Bound to happen by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2, Funny

    My dog has two cell phones, thank you very much.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  4. I hope BT doesn't follow suit by MSBob · · Score: 4, Funny

    The British Telecom phone booths look really nice not to mention all the handy hooker ads inside :-)

    --
    Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
    1. Re:I hope BT doesn't follow suit by rwyoder · · Score: 3, Funny

      The British Telecom phone booths look really nice not to mention all the handy hooker ads inside :-
      Not to mention the problems it would create for Doctor Who.
  5. Re:Hang on... by the_humeister · · Score: 2, Funny

    Riiight... and next you're going to tell me that Christopher Columbus wasn't the first person to discover the Americas, that there's a NEW Mexico, that there's no Santa Claus...

  6. Re:Bound to happen by sm62704 · · Score: 4, Funny

    My 76 year old dad has neither a cell phone nor a computer, and he likes it that way!

    I'm reminded of my mother's dad, who still used the outhouse even after my Uncle installed plumbing and a bathroom. "I lived [n] years without [plumbing/cell phones] and I don't need one now!

    I can just see when I hit 90. "Damn it, I lived 90 years without a matter replicator or a transporter and I don't need one now!"

    -mcgrew

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  7. Re:Just putting in my 2 cents worth by omeomi · · Score: 4, Funny

    I remember when you just had to push some buttons on a little box that you bought from that guy who always wore a trench coat, and the calls were free ;-)

    --
    ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
  8. As goes AT&T so goes the world... by jpellino · · Score: 2, Funny

    What's 2600 supposed to put on their back cover now?

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  9. Re:No longer required.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    some new apartment blocks lack doorbells

    Just think: someday you Fins will invent KNOCKING. nom nom nom

  10. Re:Just putting in my 2 cents worth by barefoothannibal · · Score: 2, Funny

    I remember when cereal boxes would come with a whistle that would give you free calls, now THAT was a prize!

  11. Re:turning over to independent operators, that is. by MyNymWasTaken · · Score: 3, Funny

    What are you doing actually reading, and comprehending, the article?

    This. Is. Slashdot!

  12. They said pay phones, not the booths by TheAxeMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    Those will still be in place as public urinals. They just won't have that occasional annoying ringing while you're in there now.

  13. Nine ways to handwave lack of cell phones by tepples · · Score: 3, Funny

    then again, there will be a similar problem when horror movies eventually acknowledge that most people have cell phones. most of the classic horror movies work around the premise that you can't just call somebody and the cast has to continually walk into some sort of trap. Even after Verizon starts advertising its network in the commercials preceding the film, there are plenty of handwaves that screenwriters can still use to move an idiot plot forward:
    • Out of minutes on a prepaid phone
    • Parent confiscated cell phone for overage on a 24-month-plan phone
    • Setting the movie in plain people country
    • Rural area with "no conexión" as they used to say in commercials for La Quinta Inn
    • Cell phone jammer
    • Foreigners with a GSM phone in a CDMA country or vice versa
    • Cell phone confiscated by movie theater personnel after someone forgot to turn it off and it rang
    • Cell phone confiscated by movie theater personnel for fear of using it as a camcorder
    • People turned into zombies after being hypnotized by their cell phones
  14. two words... by Cryacin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now where is Superman supposed to change? Stripper pants
    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck