News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

The death of the payphone continues

Started by mentalstampede, June 23, 2017, 02:12:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

mentalstampede

Looks like the FCC is considering eliminating their audit requirements for payphone operators. This is response to Cincinnati Bell requesting a waiver from compliance, due to the cost of the audit substantially exceeding total revenue from their payphone service.

https://www.axios.com/fcc-pay-phones-regulation-no-longer-so-few-left-2446362421.html
My name is Kenn, and I like telephones.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

HarrySmith

So sad!
That picture is quite  a good representation of most payphones still left!
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

Dominic_ContempraPhones

So you guys need to do what I do.  Call the FCC and complain, although I call the CRTC.

When my cell went dead, luckily there was a payphone within walking distance in excellent working order.  However, I can't get a copper circuit, and I've been fighting them tooth and nail on it.

AL_as_needed

I  think I need to adopt a pay phone.....Kinda like adopt a highway, but different.
TWinbrook7

RotarDad

It is interesting, and sad, to watch the payphone era end right before our eyes.  What was once everywhere, is now just about completely gone....
Paul

mentalstampede

Quote from: RotarDad on June 23, 2017, 10:41:07 PM
It is interesting, and sad, to watch the payphone era end right before our eyes.  What was once everywhere, is now just about completely gone....

For sure. The last telco owned payphones in my home town were pulled out last year. There are still a couple COCOTs around, but most of them in disrepair. Very few still have dial tone.
My name is Kenn, and I like telephones.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

twocvbloke

Quote from: AL_as_needed on June 23, 2017, 10:25:25 PM
I  think I need to adopt a pay phone.....Kinda like adopt a highway, but different.

They've been doing that here in the UK for a while, where phoneboxes were sold to either councils or private individuals to maintain, and BT kept a phone in it so long as it was economically viable, or had the phone set to provide free calls... :)

Not all UK phoneboxes are that way though, it's only ones under threat of going away, ones still used are left alone, but they're pretty under-maintained these days, so they're often covered in human slime of various types, broken glass, handsets ripped off, or phones burned...

WEBellSystemChristian

In downtown Waukesha, there were a couple working payphones still out on the streets prominently displayed outside stores. I'm not sure they're still there, but other than one, I haven't noticed any lately.

I still believe that there will be a need for payphones in airports. If your cell phone was lost in baggage and you needed to make a call, the payphones are always there and are still more profitable for whoever is operating them than allowing you to use a courtesy phone. There are a half dozen in beautiful, practically-new, fully functioning condition at Milwaukee's Mitchell International. Whenever I'm there, I see at least one person using one for whatever reason.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

AL_as_needed

Ditto Christain;

Payphones are (in theory) something well needed almost anywhere in highly populated areas. Yes, we cannot argue that mobile phones are the way to go 90% of the time, and the simple economics of it all....but hurricane sandy type events can and will happen again. I dont see how people fail to see a need for at least a back up emergency public system.
TWinbrook7

tanderson78

I live in Geauga County Ohio, which is just east of Cleveland, population 85,000.  I got RTD (Rotary Telephone Disease) several years ago, which also developed into to PTD, with a side diagnosis of OCD.  Long story short, I now have more working payphones in my basement than are available in the 412 square mile county.  My research indicates there are 2 left, one at our local Walmart that Amish use to call their taxi drivers, and one at our Kent State Regional Campus.  There were 4 at our local hospital but they were removed sometime last summer.   Over the last two summer, I made an effort to put some of my collection on display at local libraries.  I get a kick out of hearing, "you had to pay to make a call?" or "how do you dial that round thing?"  Funny and sad.

19and41

I would imagine they still do a brisk business in prisons and on basic training posts.   
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

bellsystem

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on June 26, 2017, 10:17:53 PM
In downtown Waukesha, there were a couple working payphones still out on the streets prominently displayed outside stores. I'm not sure they're still there, but other than one, I haven't noticed any lately.

I still believe that there will be a need for payphones in airports. If your cell phone was lost in baggage and you needed to make a call, the payphones are always there and are still more profitable for whoever is operating them than allowing you to use a courtesy phone. There are a half dozen in beautiful, practically-new, fully functioning condition at Milwaukee's Mitchell International. Whenever I'm there, I see at least one person using one for whatever reason.

You live in Waukesha!? So do I! I can't find any payphones in this whole city; can you tell me where they are specifically? I'll be sure to check 'em out next time I'm downtown.

I saw the payphones at General Mitchell Airport (MKE) outside of Concourse E about two and a half months ago. Not sure if there are any others (I saw a courtesy phone in Concourse C, but no payphones. And the courtesy phone only allows internal dialing - not external calls (what passenger is going to make an internal call in an airport???)). They were in booths - not phone booths but like restaurant booths, only instead of a table you have a payphone. I thought that was kind of strange. I wanted to use one, but I didn't have any reason to since I rarely need to make calls when I'm not at home anyways.


The Adopt a Payphone comment got me thinking. Is there any reason a bunch of us telephone collectors couldn't just install a phone booth at the end of our driveways for the public to use? Just like a public phone? I think it would be pretty funny and interesting to see what would happen if payphone shifted from specialized lines provided by ILECs to just a payphone on top of a separate landline offered by telephone hobbyists. I know people will use them too - maybe not as much as I'd like as a payphone owner, but enough that the door doesn't rust shut or something.

Even if I didn't make any money doing this, I think it would feel kind of nice to provide a public service that is much needed when the new greedy AT&T is pulling the plug on them.

tanderson78

I picked up an aluminum booth two summers ago and had the same idea.  I wanted to pour a cement pad and install it at the end of the driveway, then run electric and phone out to it.  I would have even considered making it a geocache location.  The wife was less than thrilled with my idea.  The best I could do was put it next to the man door by the garage and wait for my kids to make me some grandchildren.  No rush on that, though!

AL_as_needed

"You dont know what you got till its gone"

...and I mean payphones, not their house or any other tragic losses in this type of situation.
TWinbrook7

Stan the Man

 Wife and G-daughter were visiting Disney last year, and were at a Harry Potter exhibit that had a phone booth,.. You are supposed to call someone on this old phone to get something to happen.. The teens in front of my wife could not figure out how to get it to work.. She said they kept sticking their fingers in the dial holes and pushing on the numbers.. She had to show them how to use it..  :roll:   I still see a few empty phone booths (wall hangers) here and there, but I know of only one complete working pay phone.. Its in Greenway, Arkansas.. Population 209.. Every time we go to see the in-laws I look to see if its still there.. Its in a bad spot, but so far so good..