[Infowarrior] - Where Have All The Pay Phones Gone?

[Richard Forno]

Where Have All The Pay Phones Gone?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/28/tech/printable1845997.shtml

NEW YORK, July 28, 2006(AP) A stroll along Ninth Avenue in Manhattan reveals
an ugly picture of the state of the pay phone these days.

The phones are sticky, beat up and scarred; some don't work at all. A
child's change purse is stuffed on one phone ledge, along with a large wad
of wrapping plastic. On a nearby ledge, an empty bottle of tequila sits in
front of a hole that once held a phone. Empty cans of malt liquor sheathed
in brown paper bags are a frequent sight.

With rising cell phone use and vandalism and neglect taking their toll, pay
phones are disappearing around the nation. Consumer activists and advocates
for the poor have protested the drop in numbers ‹ saying that public phones
are necessary in emergencies and represent a lifeline for those who can't
afford a cell phone or even a landline.

"If you have a cell phone, you hardly look for the pay phones," said
25-year-old Sayed Mizan, listening to his iPod on a subway platform.
"Besides, most of the time if you see the pay phones, they're either out of
order or they're too filthy to touch."

Public phone operators insist that the bad reputation of pay phones is
undeserved ‹ though they do concede that they have removed many stands in
recent years due to falling use.

Nationwide, the number of pay phones has dropped by half, to approximately 1
million, over the last nine years, according to an estimate by the American
Public Communications Council, a trade association for independent pay phone
operators.

"If a pay phone isn't covering its costs, we take it out," said Jim Smith, a
spokesman for Verizon, which operates more pay phones in New York than any
other company. "Toward the late '90s, the wireless phenomenon really got
some momentum. That really put the squeeze on the pay phones."

The drop in pay-phone numbers angers advocates, who are quick to point out
that cell phones ‹ and sometimes any phones at all ‹ are prohibitively
expensive for many people.

A full 7.1 percent of the nation's households had no phone of any kind in
November 2005, up from 4.7 percent three years earlier, according to the
Federal Communications Commission.

For those people, and for the estimated 43 percent of U.S. residents with no
cell phones (as of June 2004), pay phones are especially crucial, advocates
say.

"Pay phones are a big deal for them," Sage Foster said of the homeless men
and women he works with as a housing counselor. "For most of them, it's
their only means of communication."

Pay phones also served an important purpose during two recent catastrophes
in New York City ‹ the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 2003 blackout that
darkened much of the Northeast. Cell phones failed during the crises, but
many pay phones kept working because of their direct wiring and the phone
company's backup power stores.

Ragan Belton remembers queuing up at a pay phone with 30 others to call her
daughter on Sept. 11. 'God forbid there's an emergency and you have to go
several corners to find one that's working," she said.

But public telephones were not always regarded as such a blessing.

In the late 1970s and early '80s, the phones became increasingly unpopular
with community boards and local officials afraid of drug dealers.
Eventually, Verizon changed all its phones to refuse incoming calls and
removed phone booths, which had become grim repositories for trash and human
waste.

"There was a time when all kinds of criminal elements would set up a
sidewalk office using a pay phone," recalled Smith, the Verizon spokesman.

But the phone stands that replaced them are still magnets for trash and
vandalism, and some still smell distinctly of urine.

"Some operators have just abandoned locations," said Willard R. Nichols,
president of the independent operators' trade group. "If you've got
vandalism and damage, it's very hard to keep the phone in service, because
the repair costs are too high."

Despite the rising costs, it is unlikely that pay phones will be phased out
entirely, according to industry representatives who say demand remains high
in working-class neighborhoods and in locations like truck stops and
airports.

Marilyn Ginsberg, a retired city employee who at 63 relies almost
exclusively on her cell phone, says she hopes they are right.

"They're important to have around, if for no other reason than if there's an
emergency, someone can dial 911," she said.



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