More Payphones Disappearing

from the bye-bye dept

Mon, Jan 5th 2004 1:18am — Mike Masnick

The rise of the mobile phone has pretty much killed the business model for the once ubiquitous pay phone, to the point that big phone companies like BellSouth are trying to ditch the business altogether. At the same time, however, politicians are worried about those who can't afford mobile phones who may need to make calls. While some smaller private pay phone companies are likely to step in to the space, it's clearly a shrinking space. Of course, keeping the payphones and using them as WiFi access points (like Verizon is trying in New York) seems like a smart move - building on the real estate the large carriers already have, though that could become less important with a growth in wide area wireless technologies.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

3 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

phoenix, 5 Jan 2004 @ 8:43am

No Subject Given
The worries about poor people having no means to make phone calls are unfounded - witness the "phone lady" business model that's now employed in rural areas in Asia & Africa. A person buys a mobile phone and then rents it out by the minute to the villagers, sometimes even making appointmets to come to their homes. It's the payphone with added convenience.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2004 @ 10:42am
  
  Re: No Subject Given
  
  Oh well, it should only take a year or two until we have an additional fee on our mobile bills to supplement poor people so they too can have mobile phones.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Izzy, 28 Jan 2010 @ 11:24pm

Its not just a matter of poor people not having phones, but then there is the issue of areas with little to no cellphone coverage, batteries dying, stolen phone, lost phone, broken phone, or leaving your phone home.

Too many reasons.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]