Working Pay Phones Becoming Obsolete
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I try to go out for a run at least four times a week. The only thing that I take on these runs is a water bottle to keep hydrated. Besides just being a well used water bottle, on the outside is taped some identification and two quarters. The two quarters are ‘duct-taped’ to the water bottle. The theory is that, if I hurt an ankle, knee or something like that, I can go to a pay phone and call for assistance.
There is only one thing wrong with this theory - most of the pay phones on my routes no longer work. My most used route goes through residential streets and passes commercial areas. I checked and only one phone, out of fourteen that I tried, actually worked… so much for the idea of using the quarters for assistance when I am out on a run.
I contacted the phone company to ask about these pay phones. When I finally was able to speak to a human being, the service person told me that there were only a few service vehicles assigned to fixing the pay phones now - she would not tell me how many - and the plan has been to remove pay phones instead of repairing them.
Alan Fram reported for Associated Press that cell phone usage is growing and the trend is away from landlines. “The trend away from landline phones affects the telephone industry, 911 emergency service providers, and government and private polling organizations, which rely heavily on random calls to households with wired telephones.”
Link: Trend sees cell phone only use growing
It seems that the pay phone will become obsolete soon. And I may be forced to carry a cell phone - for miles and miles and miles. Blagh!
Catherine Forsythe
[tags]cell phones, landlines, pay phones, repair, remove, obsolete, emergencies[/tags]
2 Comments
marc klink
May 14th, 2007
at 9:53pm
The only problem I see here is that the telephone company’s statement here is specious as widespread cell phone use did not happen until 1998-2000. I traveled all over the state of California as part of my job in the years 1996-1998 and found that perhaps only 1 in 7 public pay phones worked at that time. The reason I received was ‘rampant’ vandalism made it impossible to keep up with repair of the equipment. Although I said nothing at the time, I felt that perhaps the ‘rampant’ vandalism was, in fact, a response to the general disfunction of the equipment involved. Later, a response from a telco worker at middle management level validated my suspicions, with the reasoning that it just was not a priority anymore, with all the other ‘irons in the fire’ that the telcos had at that time.
Pay Phones Soon Gone at Catherine’s Flying Hamster Blog
December 9th, 2007
at 2:03pm
[...] was bound to happen. Earlier this year, I was bemoaning the fact that working pay phones were becoming obsolete. AT&T will turn them into [...]