Comments on: William Gray’s Pay Telephone

By: Absolutejagauar

Absolutejagauar — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:27:13 +0000

I used to pass a graveyard of old red phone boxes, the classic British design and always thought about buying one for the corner of the garden (When I finally get my own house). For those that are interested it is on the London to Brighton line around Redhill.
As for maintenance, I think thye cost a lot to maintain, they were often vandalised in the UK, for the money or just to break the glass. The introduction of pre-paid phone cards didn’t help much even tho the phones no longer carried much money.

By: hwertz

hwertz — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:34:54 +0000

“Scott, I was in Japan in 2003 and while everybody had cell phones, there were also pay phones about every half block. I wonder why.”
I know you weren’t asking me, but…
1) That was 2003. There were a lot more pay phones left in the US 5 years ago than now too.

2) Sunk costs? I actually am surprised at how many pay phones have gone.. I would expect once they are installed they would not cost much to keep going. If the usage decreases, you could send someone by that much less frequently to empty the coin box. The pay phone companies here seemed to literally race each other to remove phones, one day there’d be a phone with sometimes even a second person waiting for the first person to finish on the phone… next day,no phone, just an unpainted bit of wall with holes in it, and people asking the manager if they can use the phone, told “no”, then looking around for someone with a cell phone.

By: George

George — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:10:03 +0000

I suppose it’s too late to write to the author, but why could the operator hear the coin operated bells, but not the caller rung bells?

Scott, I was in Japan in 2003 and while everybody had cell phones, there were also pay phones about every half block. I wonder why.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Since I intend to be the last person on the planet to carry a cell phone, I already miss the once ubiquitous pay phone.

Now that I think about it, I wonder what’s happened to all of them. There must be thousands of them (in a landfill?)! Some enterprising person should have collected them, refurbished them and be selling them as novelty collectibles!

By: William Deering

William Deering — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:59:02 +0000

Now due to the advance of cell phone technology pay phones are becoming a thing of the past. It’s difficult to impossible to find a pay phone when you need it; left your cell phone at home. Next phase? Maybe a password or code exchange to apply payment as a good token of thanks into the account of a kind cell phone loaner in lieu of on-the-spot cash?