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Mark down another casualty of the technological revolution. AT&T, long known as the huge ‘Ma Bell bastion, is officially quitting the public pay-phone business. After 129 years of owning and maintaining a large chunk of the nation’s pay-phone network, the phones will be phased out over the next year, so a majority of the nation will be without public pay-phones. Places such as Boston and New York, where other companies like Verizon operate, will still have access to pay phones, and it will still offer pay-phone service to independent operators, but the the loss of a service I know I’ve always taken for granted is saddening.
Yes, gone are the days of collect calls to your mother (or brother) from “A Mr. ‘HEY-I-NEED-A-PICKUP!‘ Press 1 to accept this call.” Those looking for a piece of nostalgia, if you are, say, an Applebee’s or T.G.I. Friday’s or just an avid collector of phone memorabilia, you would be well-advised to acquire one before they are all scrapped. No longer will Clark Kent find a private abode to transform into superman, and Colin Farrell doesn’t have to worry about being shot in them, either. Pay-phones, as invisible as they seem, have been a quaint, little piece of culture here in America, and its unfortunate to see them go.
The writing was on the wall, however. Since 1998, AT&T has reduced the number of pay-phones from 2.6 million to just over 1 million, and revenues from the service have been steadily dropping, even after the reduction. In comparison to the amount of phones, AT&T serves almost 66 million cell phone subscribers. Unfortunately, this also has the potential to cause problems for those without wireless access; especially if a crisis arises. As great as digital systems are, the reliability of analog is without question, and unless digital reliability goes up, someone somewhere will find themselves in a predicament at some time. Of course, with all of this, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
Picture courtesy of: AT&T, Wikipedia;
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