< MCI's Prison Payphone rates exploit poor families | | Canada: Not everyone's willing to hang up on pay phones > Japan: Payphones vanishing fast May 08, 2007 "Despite their bleak future, pay phones can still serve as a vital communications link during times of disaster. Service for cellphones and home phones could be disrupted or knocked out by an earthquake, for example. However, public phone service will be available. "'During a disaster we will set up public phones at shelters. Using them along with cellphones and the Internet will be more effective than maintaining the network of public telephones,' said an NTT East official. "'To remove public telephones amounts to decreasing the means of communication during emergencies,' said Hitoshi Omachi, director of Chiiki Bosai Laboratory (Local disaster-prevention laboratory) in Yokohama. 'People should think about measures to maintain public phones, including financial assistance from the central or local governments.'" Read more at Asahi.com