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

In the Boston area, 50 cents for local calls. No time limit.

This is a pay phone outside of a shop near my Long Island office in Plainview... notice anything odd about it considering it's location?

Yeah, it's only about 500 miles north of BellSouth territory! It is obviously a COCOT.

It only costs 25 cents?

We don't actually have any distinction between local and long-distance here anymore (for either payphones or private lines). The 40-pence coinphone charge covers up to 20 minutes, however far away the call.

There's a good assortment of British payphones on this page:

https://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/kiosks_payphones.htm

The No. 600 dating from the early 1980s is the oldest public coinphone still in use. A lot of the phones toward the bottom of the page are ones which were/are the equivalent of COCOTs, typically used in pubs, clubs, hotels, etc.

I thought they dumped them a long time ago. I havn't made a pay phone call in years.... probably the last time was from an airport back in the 80's.

[paranoid matt]

I wonder if (in the times we live in) the gov't also has a hand in this, to prevent calls being made that they can't necessarily trace to a specific individual. Of course other then the cameras (seemingly every 15 feet) that are tied back to the citizen control center. Maybe if someone mounted a camera inside the payphone they would make a comeback.

[/paranoid matt]

We still have one that we service. The hills at the ski resort play heck with cell phone reception.

what's a cocot?

Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone.

25 cent local calls in my area is the cheapest, but they are definitely dying quickly here. When I do see someone on one I doubt they are on an actual call, they're probably up to something or killing time...