Verizon: Pay phones have ‘enduring future’

The Roanoke Times reports:

“The number of pay phone locations is declining about 15 percent a year, although that downward slope has flattened recently. ‘We may have reached an equilibrium” where the right number of phones are in the right places,’ [Verizon spokesperson Jim] Smith said.
“‘New York City phones? Crap,’ Smith said. ‘They’ve got to go visit those all the time; A, to empty the coin boxes, and B, to wash off the scum, the slime, the soot, the stickers, the chewing gum, all that stuff. They have to visit those a whole lot more often than they have to visit one at the depot in Roanoke.
“‘Cellphones – some folks hate them and will never have one. Some folks will forget to recharge their batteries. Some people will want a solid connection when they’re talking to their lover or their parent or whatever and they can’t stand the dropout or the fade’ on a cellphone, he said.”

Read more at the Roanoke Times