AT&T to hang up its pay phones
By Evan Blass 
posted December 3rd 2007 11:01AM
posted December 3rd 2007 11:01AM
posted December 3rd 2007 11:01AM
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I used to have a pay as you go plan that averaged to about $6/month. So please spare us the pitty party. Landlines cost upwards of $30/month after taxes and fees unless you file special "i'm poor" papers. Even then it's almost $20/month.
tmobile offers a prepaid plan that is only $100 and gets you 1000 minutes that last a year. $8.33/month no hidden fees.
don't need to talk and only need to dial 911, go to goodwill and pick out a phone for $2 and keep the phone off until you need it to keep the battery charged.
Drug dealers and pimps everywhere are mourning the lost of an icon in their business model. Oh well they'll get over it
When was the last time any payphone wasn't used for some illegal purpose? DESTROY THEM!
They've been phasing them out a lot here too, until about.. 3-4 months ago, starting popping up all over the place... must be some committee behind it, old people run this country, sigh.
Well... are tourist supposed to use their foreign cell phone to call within the US? That is going to cost a hell lot!
Also... how will the small majority who does not have a cell call one another?
Although it won't shake the world, I think it's a bad idea to remove a public service (and yes public services tend to loose money. Ask MTA :D ).
I use them sometimes with a calling card when I go on vacation. That is, when I can't get internet access to use VOIP.
It would be great if At&t donated these pay phones to the government and there was legislature to make them operate for emergency purposes only (like they only call 911).
When I was in Spain, I noticed emergency phones on the side of the road all over the place and something like that would be of a great benefit to our public welfare.
It shouldn't cost too much and if some savvy politician could work out some deal to do it with a low overhead then I think this situation could really be a positive thing for our country.
Possibly, depending on the Tel-co infrastructure here in the states, 800 number access could also be established for these emergency phones (meaning calling cards could be used). Many years ago I remember using an 800 number on a pay phone without having to insert coins.
this will effect people in poor area's, maybe they should keep a couple in high pedistrain traffic area's like subway stations most stations don't have cell phone coverage so, if something happens in a subway station and there is no cell coverage then no pay phones your shit out of luck
This is a sad article. I will certainly miss pay phones. When i was a small child I would go to a bank of payphones, and place a collect call to the payphone next to me. My friend would answer the other payphone and offer to accept the charges, but the operator just told us to stop messing around, and terminated the call. As I went through my teenage years I would use payphones to call girls I had a crush on, but instead of asking them out on a date the only thing I could think of was to tell them I was going to kill them with an axe and then start breathing really heavy. Now that I'm older I use payphones to call my girlfriend, since my wife is irrational, paranoid, and obviously unstable. She checks my cell-bill statement for numbers she doesn't recognize, then calls them. The payphone allows me to carry out my torrid affairs in complete anonymity. Dearest payphone, I will miss you my friend.
thank goodness dr. who uses a tardis!
Why!? Why!? Our hardlines cannot be taken! They will not be taken.
On the other hand though, we do need public pay phones. I have been in jams where I actually needed one. What, do they expect everybody to have a cell phone? What about when the cell phone goes dead? What about people who see beyond the simulation?
Our hardlines will not go down!
Now they can turn them into Suicide Booths.
Perferably Stop and Drop, America's favorite suicide booth since 2008.
Interesting that the pay phone you show in your article isn't even an AT&T or Western Electric payphone. It's an Automatic Electric payphone!
I could never find the IPod port in those phones anyhow.
I don't have a cellphone, but even if I did, I would be still a tad reluctant to losing the security that from any corner of the street I can make a call if I need to. But I think the cost outweighs the small advantages.
Well what about the people in areas where they can't afford cell phones and don't have house phones? No one cares about the little people or the less forunate. I may not be one of them but if something happened I would like to be able to use a pay phone!
So now, anyone with a dead cellphone battery, or anyone whos homeless, or anyone who left the house in a hurry and just left it at home and all of a sudden has an emergency...
is screwed.
I'm all for advancing technology but I'm also kind of disappointed. I forgot my cell at home one day and me and my friend went to a shopping area by car pooling. I couldn't find him later when we split up anywhere, so by the trolley center there was a payphone. Apparently it was 50cents for any amount of time the call..I only needed to talk for about a minute, to find him, so it was a waste of money, but it was extremely helpful, rather than have me wander for hours trying to find him. Sigh..I guess I'll just need to remember my cell all the time now and to make sure the battery is charged.,\
Ever occur to any of you BOZOS who are sneering and making asinine, misspelled, ungrammatical remarks here that cell phones CAN BE and ARE TRACED constantly? Just give our government carte blanche (sorry, I know you can't understand French, LOL. deal with it) to listen in and arrest you whenever it feels inclined. Welcome to Fascist AmeriKKKa, toads. You asked for it and you will most certainly GET IT. LMAO!
I think the average here is something like 1.5 mobile phones per person, our main telco has put wifi terminals in all the old public phone boxes, revamped them to accept credit cards and put connections for laptops making them truly useful.
Psst! there's other ways to get around private or untracked phone calls instead of a pay phone. Try a prepaid cell phone and pay cash!
for just $130 (tops) you can get a prepaid t-mobile (cheap) phone and 1000 minutes and the phone would last you all year!