Why are they dissapearing? Is it the rise of cell phones or the crackheads that congregrate around them? I forgot my phone in my girlfriend’s car the other day and needed to call her quickly before she was too far to turn around. Surprise, there are no damn pay phones left. Walked five minutes down Windsor and found one that was smashed apart. What if someone was in trouble or hurt terribly? —Pay As You Go Plan.. I Guess
This article appears in Mar 7-13, 2013.
and the whole world does not own cell phones BTW or have internet access
Well OB, you gave one reason, vandalism. Pay phone are expensive to have and in the world of cell phones, they are frankly becoming obsolete and too expensive to keep in service. Sad but true.
They’ve gone the way of the garbage can. Hopefully you didn’t have a Tims cup to toss at the same time.
Sign of the times, I’m afraid. More wireless devices/networks and better network coverage = less public pay phones. It’s not cost effective for the phone company to A) maintain phone lines to public phones and, B) repair/replace the phones themselves when the city neanderthals suddenly discover that they have opposable digits and smash the fuck out of them, (when they get bored with the bus shelters, that is!), like the one you found on Windsor.
You can imagine it wouldn’t take too many consecutive weekends of replacing vandalized phone boxes before the costs far outweighed any money they were bringing in. Plus, if you were able to somehow view the usage history of a functioning pay phone for a month, (including any emergency calls), it wouldn’t even begin to justify it’s existence. And the convenience factor just doesn’t pay the bills.
I understand where you’re coming from though, OB. I don’t own a cell phone personally, (I used to years ago), nor do I necessarily want one. I’m not some sort of luddite who shuns technology nor do I have anything against cell phones. (It amazes me how advanced they’ve become in a relatively short period of time.) Just personally, at the moment, I don’t have a real need for one. Sure there were times when a cell phone could’ve been extremely handy or saved me some time or effort, but for me, the peace and satisfaction of knowing that people can’t contact me whenever or where ever I happen to go, makes any convenience it might offer a moot point.
With 3 in 4 Canadians owning one, vastie, you’re definitely in the minority.
At least OB isn’t a dealer or pimp… those fuckers have a 4 phone minimum.
Since it’s a local phone, you probably could have asked a business in the area if you could make a quick call….
Yeah well, we’re a small, grass-roots movement, zZz.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go fix the butter churn.
In Europe, there are no such things…
no water fountains anymore either
Remember to get your grass roots movement going you’ll either have to pitch tents in the Grand Parade or start a hunger strike.
Pay phones are money suckers now for phone companies because no one uses them… It costs too much to maintain them versus the revenue they generate, unfortunately.
payphones are going the way of the dinos, and beta players.
“In Europe, there are no such things…”
Whatchu talkin’ bout, Meaty?
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/237815/wha…
http://www.worldpayphones.com/europe/index…
look for a bar or restaurant, op. They can be pretty nice in letting you use their phone for local calls.
we need another G7 Summit!
Cranky must be a window replacer, or own interest in a plywood wholesaler. >; )