Payphone Business Update in today's Wall St. Journal

[RotarDad]

An article about Payphones made page 1 of the B section in today's Wall Street Journal.   The article is titled "A Future in Pay Phones?  One Firm Answers the Call" and it's a good overview of the state of this business.

Apparently a company called Pacific Telecommunications Services has agreed to buy nearly all of Verizon's remaining 50,000 payphones.  PTS already has 44,000 payphones in 40 states and they believe they can turn a profit in a business most companies are leaving.  Here are some stats from the article:

1) There are 425,000 payphones left in the US, down from a peak of 2.2 million in 2000.
2) Payphones are disappearing at a rate of 10% per year.
3) It takes 100 monthly calls for a payphone to be profitable.

I'm pretty sure my kids will never use an in-service payphone, but I am very happy that they have a lot of fun dropping dimes into, and taking calls on, my 236G 3-slot!

Paul

[GG]

The decline in payphones is due to the assumption that everyone carries a cellphone, which is pernicious and part of the "race to the bottom" whereby more and more public services are being gutted (and now, the post office too).  The result is that civic space, public space of all kinds, becomes more and more harsh, cold, unfriendly, and unforgiving.  That's the opposite of progress.

One thing that could help is the promotion of those desktop payphones for small shops of all kinds.  Due to area code splits and so on, it's not worthwhile to use complex area code tables: just block international including the Caribbean (extremely high rate calls to what appear to be "area codes" such as 809), which can be done by the telco as a line feature.  All other calls, 25-cents for 3 minutes, more than sufficient for brief communication on the road. 

Australia and parts of Europe have it exactly right:   Reverse line polarity on answer, enables automatic coin collection.  "Metering pulses" sent to the phone enable "dumb" payphones to handle complex calling charges.  A payphone needs an internal microprocessor like a fish needs a bicycle.  Keep it simple and it will work.

[Owain]

Australia and parts of Europe have it exactly right:   Reverse line polarity on answer, enables automatic coin collection.  "Metering pulses" sent to the phone enable "dumb" payphones to handle complex calling charges.  A payphone needs an internal microprocessor like a fish needs a bicycle.  Keep it simple and it will work.

I don't know about elsewhere in Europe, but the UK lost its meter pulse facility several years ago. However I think the US (NANP) is unique in having 'international' calls within the domestic dialling scheme.

The traditional kiosk has, as well as the right to occupy the pavement, communications ducting and a power supply (for the light and non-line-powered equipment) - that makes the sites quite lucrative for e.g. Bluetooth 'near me' push advertising, wi-fi access points, or even freestanding cash machines (there are some combined cash machines and phones in the UK). Phone kiosks also get vinyl wrapped for advertising, but I see no reason why some of the panels shouldn't be replaced by video screens.