Requiem for the Disappearing Pay Phone 559
StarEmperor writes "This Washington Post article describes the steady disappearance of pay phones as cell phones become more commonplace. Many pay phones, which used to generate hundreds of dollars per month in revenue, are now used so infrequently that they cost money to operate. I wonder what kind of environmental hazard is posed by junking thousands of pay phones?"
where can I get one? (Score:2, Interesting)
You wonder about the wrong thing... (Score:5, Interesting)
The real question is: are they going to keep operating those phones that lose them money? Should payphones be thought of as something essential like public transportation, and possibly subsidized by the govt?
Re:where can I get one? (Score:5, Interesting)
Just my 90-cents-for-the-first-three-minutes-worth...
Ri
Too bad.. (Score:3, Interesting)
--Fuzz
British Telecom thinks kiosks are the answer (Score:5, Interesting)
Their answer was to fight back with 'improved' payphones, which were basically mini Internet kiosks. Many payphones in British cities are now these kiosks. You can still make regular calls, but you can also access numerous services like HotMail, etc.
The thing is, I don't know if it's the way to go. I've never seen anyone actually use the Internet facilities on these, and I certainly haven't.
Don't you have an alternative problem in the US though? That is, your cellphone coverage is absolutely awful, and payphones are still needed in most rural areas. It sounds like a good reason to keep them, but.. just don't go over to costly kiosks. They're a waste of time.
Re:pay phones might get more use if (Score:5, Interesting)
That was such a stupid step to take, unless they were looking for everyone to add just one more thing to the list of the benefits of having a cell phone. Payphones always have had two advantages in my mind:
1: They are wired, hence, no fuzz.
2: Just one shiny thing and you could get a call through.
Now that it's 50 cents, I find myself approaching a payphone and finding that I don't have the right amount of change on me. Who cares that it's unlimited? The three minute limit was just fine by me. I'm not exactly making leisure calls at a pay phone. The trade off is ridiculous and is bound to doom the payphones.
Re:The environmental hazard of removing payphones (Score:4, Interesting)
Turn them into WiFi access points (Score:2, Interesting)
Bell Canada has announced that they are converting some of their thousands of pay phones into 802.11 access points to extend their new WiFi service offering. WiFi-only companies like FatPort [fatport.com] would be wise to follow suit. PayPhones are in the best possible locations for WiFi -- think AirPorts, hotel lobbies, train stations...
Don't trash; upgrade! (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't Junk, Re-Purpose (Score:2, Interesting)
limited coverage (Score:2, Interesting)
I recently switched cell phone providers from Verizon to T-Mobile so I could utilize their GPRS/GSM-based wireless internet service on my laptop (~115Kbps) using my new bluetooth-enabled phone. While CDMA coverage in the U.S. is rather extensive, the GPRS networks that AT&T and T-Mobile have deployed are still very much confined to highly-populated regions of the country.
There I was in Westchester County, NY (about 50 miles N of Manhattan) trying to locate a client's office and imagine my frustration when my brand new GPRS-based phone was out of range. I had to stop at a supermarket and find enough change to call from a payphone - it saved my day.
Re:Recycling impact? (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps a more direct metaphor is in order: You're picking up litter in a burning building.
Re:where can I get one? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wonderful. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:limited coverage (Score:2, Interesting)
If mobile phones become even more common, it might be time for the government to step in and force cell companies to provide true national coverage with decent capacity for calls. One way to do this could be, placing requirements on building permits for new cell installations, requiring as condition of approval. The other problem is many cells are all ready overloaded with normal call volumes, hopefully additional requirements could be made to force cell providers to have extra capacity, for emergencies, etc.
Slashdotted and mods... (Score:2, Interesting)
PayPhones are good (Score:3, Interesting)
Payphones have all but disappeared around London, since so few calls are made on them and almost everyone has a cell phone. This trend started years ago. When I was last in London cellphones even worked down in the Tube.
One thing disappearing payphones would mean: One more parking place available at finer gas stations and 7-11's everywhere.
mailboxes are disappearing too (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:You wonder about the wrong thing... (Score:5, Interesting)
They are in most countries (either directly as a public service, or indirectly as a consequence of the fact that the Government usually owns the phone company).
It's only in the US that payphones depend on the corporate whim of a for-profit company.
- mark
not to worry... (Score:2, Interesting)
Additionally, the cost is offset greatly by the advertising revenue generated by payphones. The REAL issue isn't the telcos killing off Payphones, but putting up booths with no phones IN them for months at a time. Verizon got nailed for doing this in an NYT articlea while back.
Either the WP post is totally off base, or other municipalities andthe baby bells that serve them are friggin' morons.
-rt
How about trashing cellphones? (Score:5, Interesting)
How about junking hundreds of thousands or millions of cellphones. Plus the batteries each unit may go through in a lifetime. There's no way those things last as long as a nice clunky pay phone. I know we have a couple of dead ones around here somewhere, and a lot of people upgrade simply for fashion or features.
Yes, people are looking into recycling the phones. It's difficult because the materials are so heterogeneous, and though a few like tantalum are quite valuable, the labor to break up the phones can outweigh that. A nicer idea -- hand-me-downs [businessweek.com] to less wealthy developing countries, for sale or parts. Cellular phones have a disproportionate value in countries that never got the telephone line infrastructure in the first place.
It is all about total cost of ownership. (Score:2, Interesting)
In Poland, and many other countries I don't remember, the Phone system consists of a cellular network! Many people disagree with cellular systems, out of fear of medical influences; that is reasonable. Yet ther is no other ethical wireless alternative to microwave other than what? Pick somthing that doesn't need to be ran through a medium; fiber optice need not apply, infrared could imply somthing good, wire is back to stage1. The total cost of ownership of modern phone booths on an out-dated phone system is the problem. They take too much space, too much maintenance, and are generally not reliable in all situations of elemental emergency (vehicles that smash into them, storms, vandelism,etc). What they need is a more ethical data-networked system. Future phone booths may as well be a service provided by a local internet cafe, that is the technology I think will reserect the layed-off
Total cost of ownership of computer hardware is much lower than qualified line installers running around an area creating ground loops and phucking with a phreaking system of accousticly line-driven phones. Can you imagine, maybe membership of your internet service provider could provide access to such a future communication booth. That is worth the clustered effort for such as wireless system!
Re:You wonder about the wrong thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's only in the US that payphones depend on the corporate whim of a for-profit company.
You make it sound like its a bad thing.
Why should my tax money go to help someone loser make a free phone call?
I don't have a problem with the government installing emergency phone booths that are wired to 911 for things like that, but I'll pass on footing the bill for someone else's calls... they get enough of my money as it is!
Re:The environmental hazard of removing payphones (Score:2, Interesting)
I also have often wondered about how the laws about cellphones are written such that they cover cell phones but not cb's. And for some reason it really bothers me that there is almost certainly an explicit or implicit exclusion for police.
But, in a vain effort to swerve this post from its current tangent back towards on-topicness, the one thing that seems to bother me the most about the disappearance of payphones is that they're often very usefull in emergencies. Not everyone has a cellphone, and there are often circumstances which render them useless (bad signal reception, low battery, etc...) It's nice to have a hardline here and there where 911 can be dialed with ease, if you happen to see an accident or a fire, or a lynch mob, or perhaps if you're experiencing a heart attack or just went into labor. Granted, these are not common occurences, and the telco's certainly shouldn't be forced to maintain costly infrastructure at a loss, but at the same time that payphones are being pulled down, local and state governments are erecting emergency call boxes. Would it be all that hard to have the government agencies that are erecting the call boxes just use that money to pay the telco's to maintain their payphones? It seems like there should be a middle ground here....
Re:You wonder about the wrong thing... (Score:3, Interesting)
My dad was a postman, and he used to tell me that almost all the junk mail that was delivered was delivered to the poorest estates. For it was the poorest of the council estates that were buying new TV's, new sofas etc.
I've noticed this over and over again - lower class people mismanaging money, owning huge tv's, expensive sofas etc. The (few) middle class people I knew either didn't have a tv or had a really cheap one. (Although they did take expensive holidays etc.) Expensive cars seem to fit into both categories.
Why does it seem that lower class people are more prone to consumerism? I don't know - perhaps a mixture of no education, depression (just don't care anymore), environment, etc.
Btw, has anyone heard of any studies of comparision of intelligence between upper, middle, and lower class? (I'm aware of the lack of clear divides etc)
p.s. - I'm very much in the lower (or is it 'working' class), so don't take this as arrogance.
Cool thing to do with them anyway ;-) (Score:2, Interesting)
I have collected about a hundred or so I suppose. Shared them with my friends of course. We sometimes dial them to ask some stranger what the weather is like there, whether the bakery has some nice offers etc. Sometimes we play music at them.
Responses have been entirely positive (it's not harassement, after all, if you actually take a pay phone that's ringing, you're expecting to be suprised).
Wardriving sounds fun, and a lot more useful than this, but hey, not everyone can afford a wireless card...
Want to try? I'll share some of my numbers with you. They're in norway. so it's expensive for most of you, but... just remeber to put 047 in front of them to get out of your own country.
Some boxes near Bislett stadium in Oslo:
22565586
22607202
Box near (a duious) pub in my hometown. Call it at midnight on a friday for an interesting chat.
70132334
A mall in Oslo, Byporten:
22171821
Airports are full of bored travelers. Here are some numbers for Gardermoen, Oslo:
63975924
63983701
63982832
63983706
63983703
63982831
70183623
70183622
Karl Johan is the main street in Oslo, always a busy place:
22834080
22834978
22835775
22835777
A subway station in Oslo, Grønland:
22174166
22175106
22175563
22175567
The school where I'm trying to become a software engineer (phone boxes outside the toilets):
70126928
70128975
OK, that's it for now. I can't guarantee no typos, or that some boxes may have been taken down. If someone could post numbers for boxes in their surroundings, I'd be grateful (preferrably in a more relevant/permanent forum than this slashdot thread)
Re:pay phones might get more use if (Score:3, Interesting)
The U.S. mobile market may be chaotic because of all of the different "standards" here (CDMA, TDMA, GSM, iDEN, PCS [aka CDMA-1900]), but the competition for customers is so fierce that the companies are doing this.
Mind you, the peak minutes are expensive (I get 400 minutes for $40 and extra minutes are 45 cents), and incoming calls are tallied against that as well -- except during off peak time.
Re:pay phones might get more use if (Score:3, Interesting)