You young 'uns in the audience tonight might not realize this, but there are telephones scattered out and about where you can put in a coin, and call somebody. That is, if you can find one. And hurry.
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Just as the number of people owning a cell phone has risen, the number of public pay phones has fallen dramatically. And that makes sense, because for a great many people, there is simply no need to use a pay phone.
In Canada, where I live, regulations are being proposed as to how and when the phone companies can disconnect the last surviving pay phones. The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Communications Commission, more or less counterpart to the FCC) wants to make sure that services are maintained where they are most needed. As an example of how little these phones are being used:
Some payphones are especially lonely. Phone companies told the CRTC that 636 of their payphones weren’t used even once in the last 13 months and that about 10,000 phones were taking in less than 50 cents a day.
While it's tempting to just pull the plug on all remaining pay phones and get it over with, there are valid reasons to make sure that some stay active:
- There are low-income or other disadvantaged people who can't afford a cell phone;
- Victims of abuse need secure and/or anonymous communications;
- Some remote areas are not covered by wireless services;
- A cell phone isn't available in an emergency due to theft, battery drainage, or a variety of other reasons;
- Emergency situations may arise in public utilities, such as deep underground subway systems.
In the U.S., public pay phones can be traced back to New Haven CT, in 1880. In the early incarnation, customers handed payment to an attendant. A coin-operated version appeared in 1891, though coins were inserted at the end of the call, not as a prerequisite to make a call. The number of U.S. pay phones increased rapidly to 81,000 by 1902, one million by 1960, and arguably 2.6 million by 1995. Then the cell phone happened, and pay phones began to be disconnected, down to maybe half a million in 2013. Disconnections are continuing fairly rapidly.
I grew up in the days when each household had one telephone. It was hardwired, usually owned by your phone company, and came in a very limited number of styles and colors. Eventually things opened up so that people were allowed to buy and own their own phones, usually as an extension to a single line into each house. The variety of models and colors flourished.
Pay phones were everyone, and not at all difficult to find. Every gas station had one. Many street corners featured a phone booth, or two or three. Malls had banks of them. Airports, for sure. Whether we travelled for business or pleasure, the banks of pay phones at the airport were the only way we had to keep in touch with the outside world. On business, we usually carried a company-issued calling card for making long-distance calls. Early on, you would contact the operator, and read out your calling card number. Later, you could key the number into the phone's keypad. Later still, you could swipe the card on the pay phone's built in card reader.
For many of us, that world no longer exists. We make our phone calls whenever and whereever we want, in private or broadcasting to all those within earshot. (Pet peeve: in airport lounges designated as "no cell phone" or "quiet" zones, there is always one jerk who insists on conducting business by cell phone. This person has the loudest voice, and the least interesting things to say, and everyone around is forced to listen).
In the movies and on TV, there are some memorable scenes involving pay phones, and phone booths.
The 1960's TV series Get Smart opens each episode with agent Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams) walking down a long corridor through a series of secure doors, ending up in a phone booth. He dials a number, hangs up, then drops down as if in a fast-moving elevator.
A classic phone booth scene is in the movie Goodfellas. Jimmy, played by Robert De Niro, is sure that his pal Tommy (Joe Pesci) is going to become a made man. Instead, Tommy gets whacked. Jimmy gets the bad news from a pay phone, and doesn't take it well.
In The Matrix, Trinity uses a phone booth to escape, just as a garbage truck slams into the booth at full speed.
Colin Farrell spent most of the movie Phone Booth in a phone booth.
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March 1, 2015
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