Payphones Still Make Millions of Dollars (vice.com) 142
From a report on Motherboard: Disruption-y tech companies like Uber and Twitter are a big part of "the discourse" and our daily lives, but neither of them make any profit. You know what once-groundbreaking technology doesn't have any problems making bank year after year? That's right, it's payphones. Most people now have a cell phone, so you may have wondered who still uses those rusted, quarter-eating boxes. As it turns out, a lot of people do. According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's 2017 monitoring report, payphones in Canada made $22 million CAD in 2016 (this figure may not account for the cost of upkeep, but the CRTC has stated in the past that payphones are "financially viable at current rates.") That's spread out among nearly 60,000 payphones in the country, which made roughly $300 per phone over the course of the year. That's at least a few calls per day, each. The US numbers are similar: The FCC reports that in 2015 payphones made $286 million, which is comparable for a population ten times the size of Canada's.
Drug dealers like 'em (Score:5, Informative)
'nuff said.
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'nuff said.
Maybe, but I think they prefer burner cell phones to pay phones.
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That used to be the case because cheap phones didn't have GPS. It's 2017, all phones have GPS.
It's VERY easy to fake GPS. Just download an app that overrides the GPS and put yourself wherever you want to be. Just for fun, I made it look like I was in London.
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It's VERY easy to fake GPS. Just download an app that overrides the GPS and put yourself wherever you want to be. Just for fun, I made it look like I was in London.
That only works for apps that honor the mock location api. not all do.
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Two problems.
1) E911 services and the like don't use fake GPS. In fact, the reason your phone HAS GPS is because the E911 requirement, and the modem provides AGPS to the user. That AGPS can then be fed to a proper GPS chip (which can provide GPS information even without service, but the AGPS data is used to help prime the GPS by providing epherem
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It's 2017, all phones have GPS.
Doesn't mean it's switched on.
Doesn't mean that turning it off will let you escape cell tower triangulation.
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The way you can tell is the message, "Insert one Bitcoin for the next three minutes..."
I like 'em (Score:3)
I don't want a cell phone but I still want to make the odd call
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That's funny, in my town the cops get warrants to listen to the pay phones that are most commonly used for drug deals, and even though the newspapers report on it, they still bust lots of people that way.
The NSA may be listening to your phone calls, but they don't give a rats ass about drug dealers or that type of thing. The danger for the drug dealer is twofold; you might call from a phone they're otherwise listening to, or they might already be listening to the dealer's phone. If they're already listening
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I can see this (Score:3)
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Just get a basic Android Phone (or iPod touch) and get a VOIP number. Works everywhere that you have WiFi, which is more ubiquitous than pay phones these days. I know quite a few people who do this. I really only pay for service because I like having mobile internet. If I was only paying for talk/text access, I would probably opt for just using VOIP over WiFi.
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There's no incoming phone calls on pay phones anyway, so you really aren't losing anything. Also, of the people I know that use VOIP on their cell phone, none of them really have battery problems, and they have incoming calls enabled. I was never aware this would be a problem. You probably don't have to maintain a real VOIP connection at all times. You can probably just use something equivalent to skype so that you can still receive calls without keeping a connection running the whole time.
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They can receive calls, but that capability is often switched off in areas where the phones are otherwise used as much for drug dealing and prostitution as they are for 'normal' calls. More so in some situations, where the dealer or pimp will not allow others to use it!
[Such restrictions came about before the modern cell phone era.]
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"There's no incoming phone calls on pay phones"
That depends on the country.
USA payphones have their number written on them, to make it even easier to be called back.
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We do have programs for people who can't get access
https://www.fcc.gov/general/lifeline-program-low-income-consumers
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and if our current administration has their way, those programs will fizzle away into nothingness. they've already capped the low-income internet program; at a level far too low to meet demand.
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If our current administration has its way 2/3 of the US population would be killed, because we don’t like him.
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That's for home only. The payphone is necessary for those without phones who are outside the home. So you won't find them in hipster neighborhoods, but you may find them in the poorer parts of town.
Looked at a local list of payphones, and I see some inside of pizza places, gas stations, at train stations, bus stops, outside the 7-11, university dorms, etc. There's even one outside of a Fry's Electronics store.
And those mobile phones, especially the newer ones, suck through battery life very quickly. Whe
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We already do, they can get their Obama Phone [youtube.com] ......
I still get tickled at this....
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LOL right, the Clinton Phone program that was extended to cell phones by Bush.
I guess it is an "Obama Phone" because that is more "politically correct" than just shouting the N-word.
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Card? :D
Lol, "millions of dollars" (Score:1)
Yeah, hold the whole world up for "one meeeeelion dollars!"
You can't even buy a ranch house in Hayward for "millions of dollars" anymore.
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$286M is revenue, not profit. The profit is just enough so that it isn't (yet) worth removing all the pay phones. But new pay phones are not being installed, and broken pay phones are often removed rather than repaired.
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Most businesses will kill of profitable ventures, when there are more profitable alternatives to choose from. Pay phones may make a profit. But if they can use their staff and resources into something more profitable they will.
Pay phones need maintenance, take up property. For the person to fix these they could be laying out fiber or fixing an office.
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1. Ranch houses in Hayward are overpriced
2. Dollar purchasing power is too low
Pick at least one.
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That's why I said at least one.
They're still useful... (Score:4, Insightful)
And, for contact with my clients wanting a dime bag or two.
feel me?
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You'll have to pay a lot more than 10 cents if you want me to feel you
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I don't know about the rest of your post, but if you're paying 100$ for a quarter, you're getting screwed. A quarter is only worth 0.25$.
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Only if there was 100 dimes in the bag.
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Dime bags were $10 in the 1970s.
In my circles, a dime bag is still $10. The size changes, not the price. A dime's about a gram of medicinal-grade weed. In college, a dime was about a quarter ounce of schwag.
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When I was a kid, east of the Mississippi, a 'dime bag' was traditionally a quarter ounce. Already cost $25 and up.
Not in common useage anymore as far as I can tell. Gone the way of 'a lid'.
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When I was a kid, east of the Mississippi, a 'dime bag' was traditionally a quarter ounce. Already cost $25 and up.
A $25 quarter ounce is a "dime"? Seems like common sense to me to call that a "quarter." That's what weed cost me in high school ('93-'95) and that's what we called it. It got much cheaper when I moved close to the Mexican border for college and got much more expensive (and better quality) when I started getting it from the dispensary further north.
Not in common useage anymore as far as I can tell. Gone the way of 'a lid'.
Been a while (15+ years) since I bought weed on the street, but "dime bag" was common then/there and meant a $10 sack. I'm familiar with the term "lid," but it p
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'I can get you a dime for $30' threw me too, first time I heard it. WTF?
Nobody would sell genuine 'dimes' so it was pretty easy to decypher.
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These sorts of jokes, they write themselves.
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In college (late 90's), I paid $40/Oz or $120/QP. I now pay $10/gram. It's much better quality, but not so much better to justify the increase in price. In college, the pager/pay phone alternative was still popular. Now the most popular alternative is paying $200 to get diagnosed with a qualifying condition and going to one of Albuquerque's many dispensaries.
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I paid $65 for a quarter of top shelf, but the shit I was paying $15/g for when I was 20 I can get a quarter for $35.
You must be in Colorado or someplace with high taxes. Prices I quoted are with tax!
Does this include prisons? (Score:5, Insightful)
My understanding is that there is some really questionable pricing/gouging for phone calls from prisons.
I'm really wondering if calls from prisons are included as part of their numbers here.
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This was exactly my thought. You beat me to the post.
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you have a collect call from a inmate this call costs $5 for the first minute and $1 each additional minute
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would have to be. I used to operate a Pay phone business with a good friend. At first the money was great, then it was only good. about a decade ago I got out because I was sometimes spending more in repairs and maintenance then I made, on top of the dwindling number of people who even wanted pay pones on their properties. My buddy continued on for another 3 years until he also got out of the business telling me it was next to impossible to make a profit in the age of cell phones. simple but true is
Does this include HOSPITALS? (Score:1)
Canadian here.
I spent 3 weeks in a Canadian hospital getting quadruple heart bypass surgery.
My out-of-pocket cost was $750, all for 30 long distance calls home that I made using a credit card.
That's an average of $25 per call, and no one had to collect coins.
The rates and prices were not disclosed. I only found out when I got home and received the bill.
Pay phones in hospitals in Canada are not regulated and Bell Canada sub-contracts the billing to a third party operating in another province, that in turn i
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Why didn't you just take and use your cell phone?
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Pay phones in hospitals in Canada are not regulated and Bell Canada sub-contracts the billing to a third party operating in another province, that in turn is a subsidiary of a company based in the USA.
Try taking that one to court.
It is regulated by the CRTC. You're supposed to be given a rate flyer when you come in for long-term stay. That's a violation of the patient-trustee relationship with the hospital board. You 100% can take that to small claims court to recoup the costs of it.
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I'm really wondering if calls from prisons are included as part of their numbers here.
Maybe, you can buy phone cards from the canteen when you're in prisons here in Canada but the "local rates" are still supposed to apply otherwise. On top of that the phones must accept discount LD services(which the canteen is supposed to supply), something Bell and other phone ops don't get a cut of. Those companies are buying time in bulk, so it's already paid. On my route home, I can still count dozens of payphones through the cities I drive through. There's also payphones at nearly every convenience
Anyone trying to get a ransom (Score:1)
Scale (Score:2)
$300 per phone per year is a horrible rate considering the amount of capital involved. That doesn't even account for all expenses. Compare that to vending machines. I wouldn't be surprised to see the profit from all vending machines over the US or Canada to be well over a billion dollars per year.
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Removing change before it's too full to accept more money.
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Well, if it fills up often, it may earn more then $300 a year.
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The concept you are missing is 'sunk cost'.
In some rustbelt shithole, there are warehouses full of old, perfect condition payphones.
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Owning phone booths was a 1980s thing.
also get collect call fees and calling card fees (Score:2)
also get collect call fees and calling card fees from the phone with out having to collect coins from the phones.
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Shut up, or the profit on all those home flipping shows are going to start looking far less impressive.
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Because the way they have the tax laws set up, none of these companies will ever have written down an honest number representing "profit," the shells will never be sitting there in that configuration. The pea isn't under any of the shells, asking which one it is under just causes the trick to proceed to another stage where they briefly show you a different pea.
300 bucks per phone per year (Score:1)
equals $25 per month.. which is far less than what telephone companies charges for the phone line to hook up a privately-owned pay phone. *that's* why pay phones have been pulled from most of the u.s.
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equals $25 per month.. which is far less than what telephone companies charges for the phone line to hook up a privately-owned pay phone.
Going by my last Bell Canada bill, you'd be spot on. The local charge was $32.85.
Obvious question... (Score:4, Interesting)
What are the numbers for pagers/beepers like?
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Higher than you would think. A lot of vending machines use them to report inventory to whoever is keeping them stocked.
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A lot of vending machines use them to report inventory to whoever is keeping them stocked.
Last time I checked, two-way pagers weren't exactly cheap. Do modern machines use SMS instead?
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You would not imagine my shock when my partner got a job at a (major, high-level) hospital and was issued a pager.
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I love Canada (Score:2)
It's so cute that Canada still has payphones. I'm also imagining Canadian switchboard operators with permed hair.
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I'm imagining your mom with spermed hair.
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Even the summary says that the US has them too.
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Try to find one. A working one.
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Oh, I couldn't tell if they were working without putting in a quarter... But I do see some, and there are web sites that list where they are. Yes, some are in bad shape.
This could be wrong, but it's not me that's lying to you it would be the FCC.
Dur (Score:4, Funny)
How else are you supposed to get out of The Matrix?
But is it profitable? (Score:2)
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At $300 revenue per pay phone per year, do the owners of the pay phone make any money? Ultimately its the profitability of the pay phone service that will determine if the pay phone stays in use or not.
You're thinking of a COCOT (Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone), not all pay phones were COCOT's. Most payphones were owned by the carriers themselves and not by the property owner.
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You're thinking of a COCOT (Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone), not all pay phones were COCOT's. Most payphones were owned by the carriers themselves and not by the property owner.
Maybe. I think it will still apply though. A carrier still has to pay for the telephone either by building it themselves or buying it from a mfg. They still have to support the operation of it. All of that incurs costs including labor. In the case of a carrier owned phone, they probably have to pay some form of rent to landowner where the phone is located. In the case of pay phones in public places like parks, they probably pay a fee back to the gov.
Payphone/Hotspot hybrids... (Score:1)
They are still around. (Score:5, Funny)
Southeastern US here, and people are saying payphones are almost extinct.
It's not true though. Why, just the other day I heard a great whooping commotion in the back 40 late one night. Looked outside and there's a blue phone box. Wasn't there yesterday, so I suppose the phone company installed it. Strangely, as I looked, a good half dozen people came piling out of the thing. I have no idea how they all fit in there, unless they were maybe practicing for a world record or something. They all rushed off somewhere seeming to be in a huge hurry.
Well, last night again there were a lot of odd whooping sounds and the phone box is gone now. I suppose the phone company must have installed it in the wrong location by accident and gone to move it wherever it should have been to begin with. Go figure. Not the most competent of folks.
Point is: public phones are still around.
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Not quite. A police box had a phone on it (on the outside) that you, as a member of the public, could use to call police. The inside was for use of the police, including (but not limited to) detaining prisoners until they could be transported elsewhere.
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Fucking WOOSH if there ever were a woosh.
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insurance (Score:2)
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The super heroes cause more damage the. What the vilan would do if allowed to complete their evil plot.
Oh he was going to steal an object with 10 million dollars. To stop him the superhero had destroyed 100 million dollars worth of property.
Normally a mega robot will just walk down the street of a metropolis, however when a hero gets involved building get knocked down, how many people die from this?
I suspect Baltimore (Score:2)
also: pagers
Where else ... (Score:2)
PoI (Score:1)
Couple of things (Score:2)
$300 a year is less than a dollar a day which is less than two local calls a day as it's $0.50 for a local call on a payphone in Canada.
Don't forget that it's an average of $300 a year. Some phones are going to be used a lot more while some are hardly used (most likely installed because they have to be and only used when nobody has a cell phone).
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What surprised me when I visited Montreal was how many payphones there were. Here in the UK you rarely see more than one at any given location nowadays. In Montreal there were literally rows of the things.
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Most coin mechanisms can be calibrated for either USA quarters or Canadian quarters. Bad ones will sometimes jam if you use the wrong type.
they take loonies! (Score:2)
they take loonies!
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True. It also used to be true that landlines supplied their own power, meaning that you could make emergency phone calls in a power outage. Now when there's a power outage, the mobile access points go down too, and the POTS phone you keep for emergencies needs to be plugged in to work.