Could the End of Pay Phones Mean Disaster and Danger to Some?

Remember when you were a teenager and you would walk all the way to the corner phone booth to call your new beau, because your mom would have a fit if you used her phone to make a long distance call?

Those days of dropping a quarter in to call long distance will soon be coming to a halt. AT&T recently announced that by the year 2009, they want to put an halt to all working payphones and remove them from operation entirely.

The huge surge in sales of personal cell phones and prepaid phones has put a strain on the weakening payphone industry.

What could this mean for our economy as well as our country? I remember not even ten years ago, before the popularity of cell phones hit full swing, that if you really needed to make a call, there would seldom be a line of cars eagerly and impatiently waiting to use the payphone.

Finding one was easy, there was always one at most gas stations or supermarket parking lots. Sometimes there was even two or three right next to each other.

Many teenagers nowadays out there would not be caught dead using a payphone, it would be considered un-cool or old fashioned. Back twenty years ago, I remember that the cool kids were always hanging out near the payphone booth, waiting to make that all important call and also waiting to receive one.

The disappointing thing also is that many payphones are still standing, but they have been hit by vandals or neglected so severely that they are now unable to be used. You may drive up to one hoping to make a call and there is no receiver or the phone may be ripped out of the booth all together.

I think more of it has to be that the big telephone companies such as AT&T , prefer to not service or troubleshoot their payphones at all anymore. They are too busy out trying to sell overpriced long distance phone plans for landlines or jacking the prices up on cellular phone sales and services.

What they don't seem to take into consideration is that there is still a starving market out there for payphone usage. This happens to fall upon the homeless community and those who are low income and cannot afford a home phone or cellular phone. A payphone can be these peoples' only means of communication. To take that away is like taking away free health clinics and even shelter from disadvantaged people. For some it may be their only lifeline to staying connected with family, to follow up on job interviews or even to make important doctor appointments. Taking a payphone away from the general public can lead to more hardship than one could imagine.

The cost of payphone usage over the years has been on a steady incline, making it unaffordable for many low income callers. The cost of making a local call and long distance call 25 years ago was around .10 cents, there for a while it was even .25 cents, it has since jumped up to $1.25 for the first couple of minutes! This is a big reason I feel that the payphone industry has buried itself. How can they expect any incline in business when they keep their prices so high!

Closing down payphones and booths will only cause hardships and inconveniences to many who rely upon them, remember it isn't a problem until you find yourself in the situation of having to use one.

When you pick up your cell phone to call AAA next time you have a flat, thank your lucky stars that you have the convenience of being able to make a mobile call from the safety of your own vehicle. Just imagine if you had to walk three miles to the nearest payphone and pour in dimes and nickels just to get through to the operator. So many of us are so spoiled in this century, more than we will ever know.