AT&T To Decommission Pay Phones

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.'"

Comments

Just great!

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Now where is Superman supposed to change?

farewell, anonymity

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh look, a violent crime. Better go to the nearest payphone and report it so I don't get roped in to the case just 'cos I'm concerned about someone being beaten to a pulp.

Oh, no payphone.

Re:farewell, anonymity

[vhold]

This was my first thought as well. Case in point: A friend of mine used a pay phone to report a car being broken into, and when they asked for his name he just said "Nope" and hung up. The cops arrived shortly thereafter and caught the thief in the act. He would not have made that call on his phone.

turning over to independent operators, that is.

[mgoren]

At least according to AT&T, the phones aren't just going to disappear. What the article says is that AT&T is getting out of the pay phone business, turning some or all of their phones over to independent operators.

Profit != Bad

[p0tat03]

People are treating ATT like the scum of the Earth here, which they may be in their mobile business, but I can't see why expecting to break even is such an evil goal.

Pay phones here in Canada are up to $1 a call now, ridiculous, when it was a quarter merely a few years before. The downturn in usage means increased cost per call for the few people that still use them, which drives a cycle that forces everyone to get some sort of cell phone.

Both my brother (an academic) and my mother have pay-as-you-go plans, which cost them about $120 a year. That's really not too bad, considering they're light users. They enjoy the convenience of a cell phone, and also the security from being able to call emergency services wherever they may be, as opposed to having to locate the nearest (dwindling number) payphones.

I simply do not see pay phones as having any further use to our society. They were important pieces of technology from a bygone era, that's all.

Re:No longer required..

[michrech]

Give me a break. You can (at least in the area of the US in which I reside) walk into virtually any store and walk out with a contractless cell phone, quite cheaply. It shouldn't matter *too* much if the per-minute charges are somewhat high as, if your "example" would be correct, they don't want it in the first place, there-by meaning they'd hardly be using it as it is.

Hell, just looking at AT&T's web site (side note: MAN I hate this company -- if they do purchase DishNetwork, I'm switching to DirecTV...), you can get a damned "goPhone" for a whopping $10(!) and there are two access plans. Either an access plan that is $1 per day (you ONLY get charged the "access fee" of $1 on a day that you actually make a call) + 10 cents per minute, OR, a fee where the minutes are 25 cents.

By MY calculations, that does not qualify as "not-insignificant number of dollars on a handset", nor does it qualify for "they can pay (exorbitantly) as they go."

Next time, you might actually, ohh, I dunno, try backing up your statements with some facts? Wait.. I forgot. This is slashdot.

Just because you hate the cell phone companies (the only thing I can assume from your attitude) doesn't mean that they are out to lock you into multi-year expensive plans in an effort to not provide you adequate service and empty your wallet. It just means you haven't done your homework. Hell, it took me 2 minutes to find AT&T's rates. I'm sure other carriers have pricing similar (T-Mobile probably being one of the better carriers).

I'm really not trying to bait you into a flamewar, nor am I trying to be a troll. There are plenty of reasons to hate the telephone companies, so why make up more?

And what about those who either choose not to have a cellphone, or can't afford one? Not everyone is willing to dedicate themselves to multi-year plans, or spend a not-insignificant number of dollars on a handset so they can pay (exhorbitantly) as they go.

Didn't you see the movie?

[Tetsujin]

Now where is Superman supposed to change? Superman has been dealing with this problem since 1978 at least... Remember? He tried to change at the payphone, but found that it didn't have a full booth around it... So he came up with other places to change, like in the revolving door, and in mid-air after jumping out the window, etc...