Who Uses Payphones Any More?

Someone asked me recently “Who the heck uses payphones any more?” My response: Poor people and tourists. As someone in the payphone business once told me, until the world runs out of poor people there will always be a need for payphones. Similarly I think that tourists, especially foreign tourists, will continue to rely on payphones rather then getting robbed by cell phone carriers’ international connection fees.

As if to prove my point I got this nice e-mail from Debbie Henson, describing how her daughter is travelling across America without a cell phone, and how frustrating it can be to find a working, usable payphone in this country.

Hi Mark,

I have lurked around this site and enjoyed it for a few years now. I originally was looking for info on Burning Man and somehow found information on a phone booth out in the desert. I come back every now and then to check it out.

Currently my daughter is traveling across your country on a summer adventure. Without a cell phone she looks for phone booths to call home. She can usually only find a pay phone in Wal-Marts. If there are 3 phones only 1 may be in working order. I can hardly hear her and she has trouble hearing me due to background noise.

I have told her about your project and have asked her to take a picture if she ever finds a phone booth not in a Wal-Mart.

I took a photo last year on Vancouver Island that I thought you may be interested in but I don’t have the phone number.

Thanks to Debbie for checking in, and for adding to the Payphone Project’s series of Payphones in Canada.