atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General Telecom News AT&T announces death of pay phone by end of 2008

Company says independent companies will pick up the slack.

https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-The-Death-Of-The-Pay-Phone-89905

I'll still keep a couple of quarters in my wallet. Sometimes I miss hanging payphones. I never did find an easy way to replace a hopper in the Protels and 5501s (w/ the Elcotel boards). Rest In Peace!! :bow: Thanks for posting the link to the article!

It does not surprise me. They took all the payphones out at my HS several years ago, and took them out at UT as well.

Please keep post to facts only!
Not personal opinion or jokes.

Payphones have been disappearing slowly in the U.K. for some years. There was an item on the local TV news a while ago about a village which was compaigning to keep its payphone when BT wanted to ax it.

Back 50, 40, even just 30 years ago in a lot of small communities a sizeable proportion of houses had no phone at all, so the village payphone was heavily used. Nowadays, rural payphones operate at a huge loss, and large numbers have been withdrawn.

Even the cities have far fewer payphones than in the past.

I honestly can not remember the last time I used a pay phone ! I don't think it was within this century though.

I'm kind of sad to see it. Being a phone geek, I liked the ability to identify who the LEC was in areas served by independent telcos. Their pay phones always gave me the answer. In some cases, you could tell from a block away until the COCOTs came along.

A big part of this issue is that hardly anybody carries coins anymore and credit card processing is too expensive. The telcos can't afford to keep them, which is understandable. Verizon is still pretty active with them around this area, but there aren't nearly as many as there used to be.

R.I.P. 1D2!

I have two pay phones that I take care of when they have problems. I doubt they make enough off them for my service call, heck I know they don't. Of course these are privately owned, but that's why the big boys are dumping them.

As a matter of interest, what's the minimum payphone charge (TelCo phone) in your respective areas now?

Over here BT payphones are now a 40-pence minimum (about 80 U.S. cents).

Ed, what is a 1D2?