Are there any pay phones left? any telephone booths?

Haven’t seen one in a number of years. And besides the instances you cite above, I often imagine how many stories and films would have to be changed if made in these cellphone times. An Affair to Remember? “Hey, i’m runnin’ late. C u in 20 min.”

Funny. Just yesterday, I was thinking about the old college dorm’s phone booth and the time we attempted to see how many of us could fit in at once. As children, we used to check the coin return slot for change left behind by someone in a rush.

The phone companies started pulling their booths and banks out when they were no longer profitable. I was working as a hotel inspector when cell phones became popular enough that this started happening. The hotel chains’ public phone standards were rewritten after so many managers had to submit waiver requests.

In England, it’s pretty much the same story. The difference is that their phone booths are virtually indestructible. Now, they can be purchased. One creative guy bought a phone box and turned it into a to-go meal shop..

To answer the question, it’s been years since a phone booth was last spotted in the US. If anything, there is usually a wall-mounted payphone at airports, often in the baggage claim area.

There is a pay phone (not a booth) outside my local convience store. I had never noticed it until a girl asked me for a quarter for the phone. I live in WV.

No, and I miss them. They were a major source of income for me as a child.

I see wall phones from time to time, in places like train stations. I must remember to pick up, I would be surprised to get a dial tone.

@Dutchess_III I found a dime in a phone downstairs in the US capitol by the Senate dining room. I was rich!

There are still quite a lot of phone boxes in the uk. Sadly they are a boring grey colour these days instead of the fabulous red ones. The reason they still exist is because BT use them as wifi hotspots. I get my house phone and broadband from BT and part of the service is access to these wifi hotspots. Nobody uses them to make calls. They only take cards not cash

I live urban, and I do see payphones regularly. The cynic in me thinks that payphones exist so that drug dealers may prosper.

There are still a few left in Scotland

Airports, railway and bus stations, jails and prisons. My barber had a payphone in his shop still when he retired and closed the place down a year ago.

@janbb, sure enough. That was actually going to be my follow-up question: what novels and movies can we name whose plots wouldn’t be ruined by the addition of cellphones? Apart from those that are actually set in the age of cellular telephone communications, there can’t be many. Loss of contact and lack of crucial information are key elements to a probably infinite number of storylines.

Dial O M G for Murder

Most of the ones I see are broken. Also they are $0.50 a call. Criminals can buy an unlisted cheap phone from a gas station.

There was a lone, wall mounted pay phone outside of gas station in my old town but other than that, except for the suicide prevention phones on bridges, I don’t even know if there are call boxes around anymore, come to think of it.

I don’t remember where I saw one last, but I know I saw it within the past year.

For myself, if my cell phone were dead and it was very urgent, I’d either go to a fire department, police department or other public place (for example, my job is in a public building and the security/cop at the front desk might let someone make a call) or ask someone if I can make a call from their phone, and I’d give them the number and tell them they could dial it if they want to.

I too can’t remember when I last saw one. I’m going to look out for them. We do still have them, but I suspect in far fewer numbers.

I’m sad phone boxes in the UK aren’t red anymore!

I think I still see them in airports. I wish there were more around. What if your cell phone battery dies, or you lose your phone? I guess, a shop owner will let you use their phone? When I worked for Macy’s tears ago, and bloomingdale’s we let people use the phones, or called for them without a thought. It was part of our customer service. But, I remember once asking to use a phone at a store about a year ago and the cashier said something about the phone being for employees. Seriously? In the day of cell phones how many people are asking for the favor of using a phone in a store? Not to mention all domestic calls are basically free/included.

My aunt doesn’t use a cell phone. She used to have one I think for emergencies. She might still have it, but as far as I know she never uses it. I’m sure there is a small, but sizable, number of people who don’t have one. Just like there are people who don’t have computers.

As far as I can tell there are still banks of them at bus/train stations (airports too, I’d imagine, but I’ve never set foot in an airport). Outside of that I still spot one on occasion. I think there’s a gas station in my town that still has one.

@Love_my_doggie “I live urban, and I do see payphones regularly. The cynic in me thinks that payphones exist so that drug dealers may prosper.”

Eh, that’s what cheap pre-pay cell phones are for now. You know, the kind you can buy in the plastic shell packaging at pretty much any gas station. Cheap, not tied to a contract, nor identifiable to any particular person, not bound to a location that can be staked out (like a payphone is) and disposable. Perfect for dealers.

^^^ I’m no technology wiz, but don’t criminals need to use burner phones – create multiple numbers for prepaid phones and delete the numbers after each use? Otherwise, can’t even cheapo phones, with no contracts on either end, be traced to either(both) party(ies)?

Back on HBO’s “The Wire,” criminals bought prepaid cellphones and discarded them after maybe a couple of uses. This must have been impractical and cumbersome, no matter how inexpensive the phones may have been. But, hey, since when do drug dealers care about budgets? I believe the technology’s more sophisticated now, though.

“Burner” is just a term for a pre-pay device that’s used for a short time then thrown away. That virtually eliminates the possibility of it being traced.

There is at least one around here. It’s located a a government-owned place, which explains a lot.

@GSLeader

What does it explain?

A lot. If you want something done wrong, in a way that makes no sense, or in an outdated way, have the government do it. If you want it done right always turn to the private sector.

That was awesome when the private sector sold crap loans as derivatives and caused the worst economic crash in 80 years.

They did that better than anybody!

Around here everything that could have been privatized was. The parks are so much better since they got leased to a private company, as well as all road construction and the like. Costs the taxpayer far less (taxes are next to nothing here) and what was privatized is like a million percent improvement. That’s what happens when actual professionals and not government bureaucrats are in charge of things.

@GSLeader

And what does any of that have to do with payphone booths (which, by the way, are owned and operated by the phone company, a private entity)?

If you are in the US, and your taxes are “next to nothing”, you are in a state that gets a lot more Federal spending than it pays in taxes. The rest of us are subsidizing you.

Also that’s amazing that your roads are not paid for by the government. I assume all roads are toll roads, even the residential streets.

Nope. Talking local taxes, nothing subsidized, no tolls. Local politicians aren’t paid, and most things like maintaining parks have been privatized. That being the case the government spends little money so needs little money, so taxes little money. Other places, like Illinois, spends do much and pays government officials so much they actually tax the purchase of milk and bread, which is sad. So sad.

@GSLeader who pays for the parks and roads to be maintained? I don’t understand. Someone must be paying.

Privatized, funded by selling ad space. All of the park equipment (swings, slides, etc.) has an ad by them for things like local restaurants and stores and such. Space is also leased for ice cream shop, food place, mini golf, and the like. It’s all leased out to private companies, including groundskeeping, so no overhead for government means no taxes need be collected to pay for overhead. It works well, perfectly well, in fact.

There are good and bad examples of both government run and private run. I don’t see why people think it’s one or the other.

Also, when private gets big enough it’s basically like a government. They wield so much power they gain control over people and places.

@GSLeader

I’d almost guarantee you that private park is being subsidized by public funds. Maybe they’re not coming out of your pocket, but they’re coming out of someone’s.

@Darth_Algar. I will guarantee that is not the case. It’s a public part where operations are leased out to private companies where they either profit with selling if food and/or hoods or by selling ad space. Zero taxpayer money is used to operate or maintain our public parks. It’s a system that works, and works well. Nobody is forced to pay for something they don’t use, which is as fair as it gets.

@GSLeader

Ok. Where do you live, and what is the park?

Who takes care of the roads and bridges? The cemeteries?

The prospect of going to a park that is full of ads is not appealing.

Here’s a story that should be of interest:
Why Some Places Still Have Plenty of Pay Phones

I’m looking for an even more interesting one I heard in Columbia, Missouri last week. If I find it, I’ll post it as well.

@ibstubro Interesting article. I guess I must be walking by pay phones when I’m in NYC and it hasn’t registered. I can picture a set of pay phones not too far from my sister’s old apartment (she moved a few years ago) and I have no idea if that memory is from 15 years ago or a couple of years ago.

Here’s the story about the payphone in Columbia, Missouri if anyone wants to spend a few minutes on an interesting, local-interest story.

I was in a Panera yesterday and they had a pay phone.

Everytime I see this question I wonder…does Superman run into a Verizon wireless outlet store to change?