Washington State Dead or Gone Pay Phones

[Westrex]

I believe GTE merged with one of the RBOC's to merge into Verizon Communications around 2000.

GTE Website from 1999: http://theoldnet.com/get?decode=false&scripts=false&timestamp=19991012011335&url=http://www.mergerinfo.com

The website is incomplete, but it might be some-what working.

[Jon Kolger]

GTE merged with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon.  Verizon eventually sold off most if not all of the GTE properties, mostly to Frontier.

[markosjal]

If you visit Highway 2 Antiques in Sultan, Washington, the GTE pay phone w/ Verizon coin box is for display only, it's not connected to the phone system.

These disconnected Pay Phones should be modified and connected to VoIP by their site owners as a service to their customers IMHO. They should offer FREE calls and 911 access. There may not be much demand but sometimes there is a demand and there is always the WOW! factor to draw people in. The cost is very minimal to do it, especially while the calls are such low volume.

Otherwise these locations may be offered to a company like FuTel http://futel.net/ for them to manage???

[TelePlay]

GTE Website from 1999: http://theoldnet.com/get?decode=false&scripts=false&timestamp=19991012011335&url=http://www.mergerinfo.com

The website is incomplete, but it might be some-what working.

As an FYI, that link is to a internet archive site. It is not the web site of that company. While it is an active link to the archive, almost all links within the page brought up by clicking on that link are broken, no information is provided.

This "theoldnet" archive is inferior to "The Wayback Machine" internet archive site and entering the URL "mergerinfo.com" into the Wayback Machine shows 14 different archive date with the earliest for mergerinfo being in 2010 and the last September 17, 2021 (the only capture date that displays any content and that content says the "mergerinfo" domain has expired prior to 9/17/2021.

Posting this as it may be good and/or useful info to many, with the exception of BB of course.

[Westrex]

http://www.theoldnet.com is not really inferior to the Wayback Machine, because it uses the archive.org/Wayback Machine API and uses a proxy to make the content usable on old computers/browsers (like Netscape and America Online). Just a heads up for anyone who finds the page.

[Westrex]

These disconnected Pay Phones should be modified and connected to VoIP by their site owners as a service to their customers IMHO. They should offer FREE calls and 911 access. There may not be much demand but sometimes there is a demand and there is always the WOW! factor to draw people in. The cost is very minimal to do it, especially while the calls are such low volume.

Otherwise these locations may be offered to a company like FuTel http://futel.net/ for them to manage???

I agree, they should connect them over VoIP or the stores phone line for 911, coin or free calls. Have you heard of PhilTel? It's like the Philadelphia version of FuTel. Here's a link to their website http//www.philtel.org/

[Westrex]

Some more dead pay phones are at the gas station on Market Street & 8th Avenue, and The Lockspot Cafe.

[TelePlay]

Have you heard of PhilTel?

Yes, we are fully aware of Naveen's experiment being offered with a lot of promise but no business acumen (every accountant knows nothing is free, anywhere, anytime, ever).

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=26933.0

"Free" means someone other than the caller receiving the gift of making a call has to donate time and/or money to provide the "free" telephone service, or as Futel has posted on their site about donations: "Futel is made possible by volunteers and contributors, who we thank! Futel is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and contributions are tax deductible.

Support us by donating with PayPal or a credit card. Here's a button!"

[FABphones]

Some more dead pay phones...

That red copy GPO kiosk can stay dead. Wrong in just about every way.
Where's the Optrex when it's needed...

[Westrex]

That red copy GPO kiosk can stay dead. Wrong in just about every way...

Yes it was a GPO clone, but it was the only pay phone near the Ballard Locks, which was a good spot for a phone.

[markosjal]

Apparently Futel (http://futel.net) has a working Public phone in Washington State in Long Beach, WA . Oddly enough , looks like a Bremerton number 360 228 2259

[markosjal]

You know a  simple asterisk server on a  Raspberry Pi 4 can be configured to connect to Google Voice directly (https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30661088-PBX-FreePBX-for-the-Raspberry-Pi) and could serve up MANY GV accounts to PayPhones. Add GV911 (https://gv911.com/) to the dial plan of the ATA or asterisk and you have 911 covered at $1 per month per line. That means a total monthly service cost of $1 per month to re-activate these old payphone with unlimited USA/Canada calling and an incoming number.   The ATA is a matter of $20 or so.  Local power (very minimal ) in many cases can be provided by the host business. Of course a Battery Back up is nice and in the case of a Grandstream HT80X and many modern devices this could be a 5V USB battery.

[markosjal]

Vancouver, WA 2715 NE Stapleton Rd (at NE Andresen) front of store, Pedestal type Booth remains, phone intact.
Vancouver, WA 6920 NE 4th Plain at Andresen Glass booth near Tesla Entrance. Booth only, no phone
Vancouver, WA 3468 E 4th Plain Booth with mostly intact phone

[Westrex]

Thanks for the pay phone locations Markosjal.

[markosjal]

I would love to find a local business that wants to resurrect one to offer free calls!