The last time I used a payphone, I was ten years old and it was a prank call to the operator asking if she wanted to sing a duet. She told me I’d be singing to the police if I called again, and me being the trembly kid I was, I stayed away from payphones for the next few years. It wasn’t long until I forgot about their existence entirely.
This is hardly surprising. In the present day, my cell phone is infinitely more convenient, and I have no need for operators when GOOG-411 will find what I am looking for and connect me for free, no human required.
My friends and family abroad have Skype, so long-distance calls are out, too, and if my cell phone dies for some reason, I can always ask a friend to use theirs. Judging by the decline in the number of payphones, I am hardly alone in my unconscious boycott.
There are roughly 800,000 payphones in the US, down from 2.5 million in 1997. The FCC reported a 58 percent decrease between ’07 and ’08 alone.
AT&T left the business in 2007, while Verizon still owns 180,000 talkboxes nationally. Most payphones are run by independent providers or small businesses, like gas stations. If you’d like to buy one for yourself, you can do so here; you’ll be down about $300, but that’s $200 less than an iPad, and a payphone can actually make calls.
With the proliferation of cell phones, it might seem that payphones are on an inexorable path to meet pagers in technology heaven, but there is at least one professional group that would vehemently disagree.
The American Public Communications Council (APCC) is a national trade association dedicated to furthering the payphone cause. It represents 1,200 independent payphone service providers and it lobbies both congress and the FCC to create conditions favorable to the payphone industry. It also publishes a monthly magazine, Perspectives, dedicated solely to payphone-related issues. Seriously.
The APCC believes payphones play an important role in, “closing the demographic divide.” It cites numerous statistics showing that in rural and poor areas, hard line and cell phone ownership rates are way below average, arguing that payphones keep these people connected to society and important social services.
The association also provides numerous examples of payphones saving lives in emergency situations when cell phones have died, giving children or homeless people the opportunity to report crimes perpetrated against them.
September 11th is cited as an emergency situation when cell phone networks were down but payphones gave people the opportunity to call loved ones.
The APCC sees payphones innovating and enduring. With a motto proclaiming “From coins to cutting edge,” it envisions telephone machines with internet and fax capabilities throughout the country. And in a remarkable attempt at discrediting cell phones, it describes payphones as a device of convenience “that never drops a call, loses a signal, or needs a new battery.” I’m sold. Now, if only I could fit one in my back pocket.
In any case, payphones represent a different time, one which almost takes on a nostalgic sepia tone of times gone by. These were the good old days, when people weren’t so gosh darn reachable, and payphones were a part of that.
We are more linked to our technology now (my cell phone, my IP address), while payphones carry a healthy dose of anonymity. Sure, the buttons might be dirty and the handset likely carries hepatitis, but I would be sad to see payphones go.
What do you think? Hopeless relic of the past, or useful, contributing member of society?
