Payphone News

NY Legislature Stops Unjust Prison Phone Contract

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:43:55 -0500

From a Malkin & Ross press release:

"The New York State Senate and Assembly reached agreement at the end of this year's legislative session on legislation that would treat prison telephone service as a right, not as a revenue generator.
"'Words cannot describe what this victory means to me -- unless they are written on a phone bill that I can now afford to pay,' said Cheri O'Donoghue, whose young son is incarcerated in New York State. 'It is such a relief that I can now talk to my son more frequently without financial hardship.'"

UK: BT Takes the Phone Out of the Box

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:38:26 -0500

BT is re-vamping the design of its public payphones. The new design, by ad firm JCDecaux, accommodates more advertising on the phones in a drive to compensate for dwindling revenues from payphone usage.

"The new, cutting edge design, is the first new design of telephone kiosk in the UK for 20 years. The latest style kiosks, called the Street Talk 6, are being installed this week and has a payphone on one side and back illuminated scrolling six sheet advertisements on the other."

Read more at Assodigitale

Canada: Remove pay phones to fight crime?

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:25:41 -0500

"SaskTel is being urged to remove pay phones from an inner city neighbourhood in Regina amid accusations that they're facilitating drug dealing and prostitution.

"But other people argue that the phones, located near the General Hospital in the Core neighbourhood, provide a vital service for low-income people in the area who don't have their own phones at home."

Read more at CBC News

Cell Phone Booths Find a Home at Libraries

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 14:19:06 -0500

"There is a new take on phone booths at Eastern Connecticut State University, and it is designed to keep the library the way it is supposed to be - quiet."

I looked at these booths last year, and expressed skepticism at their usefulness. Depending where these booths are used, it would seem that the dramatic step of entering one of these booths would only serve bring even more attention to the cell phone user. In a library, though, this contraption would seem to be a sensible addition.

Read more at WTNH.com

Canada Payphones: Use Them Or Lose Them

Wed, 30 May 2007 11:51:34 -0500

"According to Statistics Canada, the number of pay phones across Canada dropped by almost 40,000 -- or more than 20% -- from 178,116 in 1997 to 140,431 by the end of last year. The pace of removal is quickening, with almost 10,000 of those disappearing between the end of 2005 and 2006.
"Right now the company operates 50,000 pay phones in Ontario and 30,000 in Quebec.

"When it comes to the business of pay phones, it's just as Gladstone says: Use it or lose it."

Read more at the Edmonton Sun

For every cell phone sold, 10 more pay phones turn to mold

Sun, 27 May 2007 12:54:55 -0500

There are still holdouts. Luddites, you might say, who oppose new technologies. To a limited extent I am one such holdout, as is Mark Rutledge, at Reflector.com:

"I've been sucked so far into this cell-phone culture, I completely forgot that public telephones still exist.
"Someone had extinguished a cigarette on the top of the phone, and the receiver was smeared with something awful, but it worked. Praise God, it worked."

Canada: Not everyone's willing to hang up on pay phones

Mon, 14 May 2007 16:23:18 -0500

The Payphone Project gets a mention in this story from Victoria, Canada, which explores ambivalence to the expected rate increase for calls made from Telus payphones.

"Plenty of people eschew, can't afford, or just don't need cellphones. The question is whether there are enough of those people to keep pay phones profitable.
"Maybe not, to judge by the reaction (or lack thereof) to the news that the 50-cent phone call is coming. There was damn near a revolution when the toll jumped to two bits from a dime in 1981. This time, a collective yawn."

Japan: Payphones vanishing fast

Tue, 08 May 2007 23:45:59 -0500

"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

MCI's Prison Payphone rates exploit poor families

Thu, 03 May 2007 00:47:03 -0500

"This is a state-sponsored scam," said state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford. "It's an outrageous intrusion on the rights of families with people in prison. And that's who bears this cost - the families." McDonald said the money generated from the calls should instead be spent on inmate re-entry programs, and he plans to work with state officials to implement such a reform.

Read more at Courant.com

Canada: Pay phones provide a lifeline

Thu, 03 May 2007 00:37:35 -0500

"Not surprisingly, your need for pay phones increases as your income decreases: 88 per cent of low-income Canadians use pay phones at least a few times a year, according to a 2003 national survey conducted by the Montreal-based Union des consommateurs. That includes 22 per cent who use pay phones daily."

Read more at the Globe and Mail, and read the comments on this story.

Nevada Payphone: A thing of the past?

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:34:48 -0500

The Nevada Appeal accompanies its fine story about declining payphones with a strangely erotic photo of a rotary dial payphone.

"The pay phone, like a lot of old technologies, has become somewhat of an endangered species these days. Once found up and down Highway 50 at every gas station, liquor store and convenience shop, they're now harder to find."

Read more at the Nevada Appeal

Supreme court rules in favor of payphone industry

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:32:37 -0500

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the right of companies to sue over alleged violations of federal communications law and reinforced the regulatory authority of the Federal Communications Commission.

"In a 7-2 decision, the court said that pay-phone provider Metrophones Telecommunications Inc. may pursue a suit against Global Crossing Telecommunications Inc.

"At issue are payments for coinless calls on Metrophones' payphones over Global Crossing's network. The calls involve special access codes such as 1-800 or 10-10-220."

Read more at San Jose Mercury News

San Diego: Sun sets on beach pay phones

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 13:10:50 -0500

The Union-Tribune's Michael Stetz writes:

"Mark Thomas, who started The Payphone Project, digs pay phones. Thomas used to call them out of the blue and play a tape of one of his piano performances over the line to whomever answered. He liked the odd connection between perfect strangers. Today, most pay phones won't take incoming calls, though."

Read more at SignOnSanDiego.com

World's most famous phone booth claims world record

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:51:08 -0500

Scotland's Pennan phone box, declared by a local tourism board as "the most famous phone booth in the world," was the scene of record breaking achievement. 16 gymnasts filled the famous phone box, breaking the booth-stuffing record set in 2003 in Edinburgh, where 12 adults and 2 children succeeded on their second attempt to fill a booth with themselves.

The Edinburgh record only includes 2 children, though, while the more recent Pennan booth-cram was all youngsters. Is it inevitable, then, that another record-seeking group will fill a booth with, say, 29 infants or 30 dwarfs?

The Payphone Project asks: When will standards be set in defining the terms of this critical world record?

Scotland claims "the most famous phone booth in the world"?

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:56:19 -0500

Because of its central role in the movie "Local Hero," a phone booth in Pennan, Scotland has become one of Scotland's leading tourist attractions. While many calls come in to this phone, however, few calls seem to go out, causing concerns that this phone would be purged along with other money-losing phone boxes throughout the country.

BT states there are no plans to remove this phone:

"A BT official spokesman wanted to make it clear that there are no plans to close the Pennan box, – or any other kiosks in Scotland.

"He said: 'We are committed to keeping these rural boxes open. There was a five-year programme to thin out the least used boxes, but that is finished.'"

Too bad we don't have a photo of this famous phone box. Is it really the most famous phone booth in existence? It's debatable, but hey, why not?

Read more at the Banffshire Journal