This is an interesting story. I am still thinking about it, because I think its message reaches beyond the Amish and offers a metaphor for how all communities can manage the influence of technology in their lives. “Off the side of a dirt road in southern Maryland stands an odd answer to the swiftly changing…
Welcome to the 21st century. Access to public telephones must now be litigated and passed through political channels: “We knew that, for a state like Maine, pay phones are not just a relic of small-town Maine, but a necessity of life, part of the landscape,” [Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland] said. “They’re there for that emergency…
Look for a couple of quotes from me in this story by Coulter Jones, which also mentions the Freefone business model that I think represents a substantial part of the future of the public telephone. “In the past nine years, a million pay phones have been shut off in the United States — nearly a…
“[Howard Meister, president of Cleveland-based North Coast Payphones] said he believes that pay phones always will exist on the American landscape, even at reduced numbers. “‘Until the country gets to a point where there’s universal service or every person breathing has access to cell phones, there will be a need for this public service,’ Meister…
“The new VoIP pay phones, dubbed the WebPhone, has (sic) a handset, color monitor, full keyboard and looks similar to digital photo-printing kiosks. [Pie Networks] said the VoIP pay phone will be able to draw in mobile phone users by offering lower rates than some mobile plans.” Read more at VOIP News
“[Telstra] has told its pay-phone provisioning staff to begin taking out the extra phones later this month, despite being warned that the information used to determine the profitability of many phones in NSW and Queensland was unreliable.” Read more at AdelaideNow
“… as cell phones have given pay phones a run for their money, some in the industry are hoping for a comeback with new technologies, like Wi-Fi connections. “About 40 pay phones recently launched at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas now also operate as Wi-Fi spots. Wal-Mart may be next in line. So anyone looking…
I first pointed out Popa Media’s Free Phones last summer. It seems they have endured as a viable business model, and I think their success is well deserved. Free calling time is a product everyone can agree on, and billboard advertising is no great nuisance in most urban areas. I look forward to seeing advertising…
“A full 7.1 percent of the nation’s households had no phone of any kind in November 2005, up from 4.7 percent three years earlier, according to the Federal Communications Commission. “For those people, and for the estimated 43 percent of U.S. residents with no cell phones (as of June 2004), pay phones are especially crucial,…
SeattlePI.com reports: “In the late 1970s and early ’80s, the phones became increasingly unpopular with community boards and local officials afraid of drug dealers. Eventually, Verizon changed all its phones to refuse incoming calls and removed phone booths, which had become grim repositories for trash and human waste.” Read more at SeattlePI.com
Abby Johnson describes how SBC/AT&T’s removal of unprofitable public phones in rural Nevada has created public safety concerns, stranding some with virtually no phone communications. “The availability of a pay phone in each outpost community along the Loneliest Road is a matter of public safety and courtesy. It is what Nevada owes the tourists and…
FoxNews.com reports: “A stroll along Ninth Avenue in Manhattan reveals an ugly picture of the state of the pay phone these days. The phones are sticky, beat up and scarred, and some don’t work at all. A child’s change purse is stuffed on one phone ledge, along with a large wad of wrapping plastic. On…
I get quoted at far greater length than I deserve in this nice story about the potential removal of a payphone in Farmington, New York. I did not know that this was going to be the front page, big-time boffo news story of the day at this paper; nor did I know I would be…
The pay-phone maintenance man is cited as an example of a job that will eventually disappear. The maintenance man quoted in this story offers this insight into the state of the payphone business: “‘There is a large section of society, the have-nots, who use pay phones,’ he said. And pay phones can be essential…
Update, 9/26/2006 Of interest to Payphone Project readers — and of interest to all who believe public information should be publicly available — comes an interesting release of a comprehensive database of mail collection boxes throughout the United States. This database is believed to include locations, descriptions, and scheduled pick-up times for every postal collection…
The American Public Communications Council (APCC) is targeting carriers who fail to pay compensation to payphone providers for coinless payphone calls (calls made with credit card and calling card). The APCC’s president, in sharply worded comments, said: “This failure to comply with the FCC’s rules could not be more egregious and the incredible arrogance these carriers…
Kim Lyons finds a handful of phone booths in Pittsburgh, illustrating how Superman would likely be out of luck should a crisis occur in that town. Interestingly, Superman’s association with the phone booth seems to be overstated. In the movies, at least, Superman has apparently never stepped into a phone booth. Read more at the…
The Airfone, owned by Verizon, is essentially an extremely expensive in-flight payphone. I remember using one of these phones to make a call in 2001 — the bill was alarming. I don’t recall the exact number but I seem to remember a 10 minute call costing 40 or 50 bucks. I have since used these…
“There’s one pay phone at the crossroads near the docks the men can walk to. The men are there all hours of the day and night making phone calls. There isn’t even a light there.” Read more at Northwest Indiana News
When I was a kid the church I attended installed baby booths. These were soundproof (almost) rooms where parents could take their screaming babies so as not to disrupt the service. These booths were considered innovative. I never saw such booths again, but as a lapsed Catholic I guess I might have missed them. Salemi…
‘”AT&T does continue to operate ‘as many pay phones in St. Francois County as possible,’ Moesner said. He added that entities who have had a pay phone removed may ask the company to reconsider its decision. Entities can also pay a fee to have a pay phone if they really want one.”‘ Read more at…
MacAllister Stone writes: “My personal experiences with payphones over the years tend toward the middle-of-the-night, damn-I’m-in-a-fix variety. You know the kind I mean, right? Your car broke down and you’ve just hiked along the shoulder of some lonely two-lane highway, in the dark. You find a roadhouse with a payphone in the back, through the…
NPR delivers a flailing, unfocused piece that nevertheless opens some interesting windows into the paranoia of Americans who for some reason assume that use of public networks comes with a right to anonymity. ‘”What I decided to do was go out and buy with cash a pre-paid phone card,” Hensley says. “Then through other means,…
“Rural payphones saved from having the plug pulled on them are being converted to take cards instead of coins. “Merely losing the ability to pay for a telephone call by using coins at these locations is better than BT having to remove the kiosk altogether, which would be the alternative,” said (BT Manager Rick) Thompson.”…
“British Telecom is to scrap three Wirral payphones and remove cash payment facilties from a fourth. ‘”We appreciate that some people will wonder why the phones are being removed, but often when you ask those same people when they last used a public payphone they have a lot of trouble remembering.”‘ Read more at the…
“You’re climbing your way out of homelessness and trying to get a job. And a place to live. And meds for your bipolar illness. And school placement for your 8-year-old who’s in a shelter with you. Do you know what you need on the way back up? A phone. That’s what you need.” Read more…
“‘A pay phone and a roll of quarters is the best way to protect your privacy if you’re really interested,’ said Jim Dempsey, policy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology watchdog group.” Read more at Forbes.com
“John and Jane Hughes have a telephone at home, but it only takes incoming calls. They got into the habit of using the public phone box to call out when their children were teenagers because it was a good way to keep the phone bill down.” Read more at UPI