A Pittsburgh Tribune-Review report includes interesting payphone statistics from the city’s International Airport. Similarly stark statistics illustrating the decline in availability and usage of public telephones likely apply to other large airports around the country, and around the world.
“When the airport opened in 1992, users dumped more than $1 million into its 800 pay phones.
“Through the first nine months of this year, the authority collected $10,019 on phone revenue of $66,793.”
he story then goes on to answer a question commonly asked of me by people who find this web site: How many payphones are left in America?
The American Public Communications Council, a trade group representing about 800 independent pay phone operators, said about 425,000 pay phones remain in the United States today, down from 2.2 million in 2000.”
Read the full story: Pittsburgh International Airport goes down to just 20 pay phones.
I don’t seem to have any Pittsburgh payphone pictures, but a web search turned up a series of images showing a “payphone graveyard” at Pittsburgh International Airport. The pictures, by Myspace user the cheshire cat, are from 3 years ago. I borrowed one image. Click through for the rest:
