AT&T To Decommission Pay Phones

oahazmatt writes "According to MarketWatch, AT&T said that its pay phones will be phased out over the next year. A company spokeswoman declined to say how much revenue its pay-phone business generated, but the number is small and declining. 'The first public pay-telephone station was set up in 1878, just two years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the talking device. The first coin-operated pay phone was installed in Hartford, Conn., in 1889. For decades after the pay phone's invention, many Americans relied on them because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining reliable home service. Only after World War II did the telephone become a household necessity.'"

Hang on...

[greyworld]

Bell did not invent the telephone. It was Antonio Meucci!

turning over to independent operators, that is.

[mgoren]

At least according to AT&T, the phones aren't just going to disappear. What the article says is that AT&T is getting out of the pay phone business, turning some or all of their phones over to independent operators.

Re:Profit != Bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Pay phones here in Canada are up to $1 a call now, ridiculous, when it was a quarter merely a few years before.

$1? Where do you live? For payphones regulated by the CRTC (ie the incumbent local carrier, Bell Canada in Ontario & Quebec, Telus in BC & Alberta, etc), payphones are 50 cents max.

Or is this one of those no-name payphones?

Re:No longer required..

[michrech]

Give me a break. You can (at least in the area of the US in which I reside) walk into virtually any store and walk out with a contractless cell phone, quite cheaply. It shouldn't matter *too* much if the per-minute charges are somewhat high as, if your "example" would be correct, they don't want it in the first place, there-by meaning they'd hardly be using it as it is.

Hell, just looking at AT&T's web site (side note: MAN I hate this company -- if they do purchase DishNetwork, I'm switching to DirecTV...), you can get a damned "goPhone" for a whopping $10(!) and there are two access plans. Either an access plan that is $1 per day (you ONLY get charged the "access fee" of $1 on a day that you actually make a call) + 10 cents per minute, OR, a fee where the minutes are 25 cents.

By MY calculations, that does not qualify as "not-insignificant number of dollars on a handset", nor does it qualify for "they can pay (exorbitantly) as they go."

Next time, you might actually, ohh, I dunno, try backing up your statements with some facts? Wait.. I forgot. This is slashdot.

Just because you hate the cell phone companies (the only thing I can assume from your attitude) doesn't mean that they are out to lock you into multi-year expensive plans in an effort to not provide you adequate service and empty your wallet. It just means you haven't done your homework. Hell, it took me 2 minutes to find AT&T's rates. I'm sure other carriers have pricing similar (T-Mobile probably being one of the better carriers).

I'm really not trying to bait you into a flamewar, nor am I trying to be a troll. There are plenty of reasons to hate the telephone companies, so why make up more?

And what about those who either choose not to have a cellphone, or can't afford one? Not everyone is willing to dedicate themselves to multi-year plans, or spend a not-insignificant number of dollars on a handset so they can pay (exhorbitantly) as they go.

Re:Hang on...

[sm62704]

The history of the invention of the telephone is a confusing claim and counterclaim, further worsened by the lawsuits which hoped to resolve the patent claims of individuals. It is important to note that there is no one "inventor of the telephone", though Alexander Graham Bell is often credited as such, and the Italian Antonio Meucci was recognized by US Congress on 11th June 2002 for his contributions to inventing a telephone. The modern telephone is the result of work done by many people, all worthy of recognition of their contributions to the field. Bell was the first to patent the telephone, an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically", 16 years after Antonio Meucci, who did not have sufficient funds to file a patent, demonstrated his "teletrofono" in New York in 1860.

-Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

-mcgrew

Interesting

[WhiteWolf666]

AT&T continues to maintain it's Telephone Lease Program, but no longer maintains pay phones.

How absurd. Did I mention I hate those bastards? I decided to give them a try, especially given their "30-day money back guarantee". I'd heard they had improved, they were a new company, my slashdot posting history aside. I found out two days later that I would be getting the same, standard 6/768 DSL they give everyone, not some new 8meg/2meg package the sales rep sold me on.

Cancelled immediately. AT&T issued a bill for $100. Settled for $50. For 3 days of service, even with a "money back guarantee".

So much for giving them a second chance. I'll never, ever, ever, ever do business with AT&T again. For any reason. To the end of my days. Those bastards will never, ever change.

Didn't you see the movie?

[Tetsujin]

Now where is Superman supposed to change?

Superman has been dealing with this problem since 1978 at least... Remember? He tried to change at the payphone, but found that it didn't have a full booth around it... So he came up with other places to change, like in the revolving door, and in mid-air after jumping out the window, etc...

Re:I hope BT doesn't follow suit

[Joe Jay Bee]

This is pedantry 2 DA MAX, but Dr Who uses a police box (which have already been phased out) not a phone box.

Re:farewell, anonymity

[Kizzle]

Actually there are tons of third party pay phone providers out there. They're called cocots. They're easy to spot because they have odd business names on them and not Verizon/ATT/Sprint/ect.

So while ATT may be pulling out their pay phones, others will still exist.

Re:No longer required..

[Sparr0]

or C) don't use enough minutes to make a plan worthwhile.

That's me. I use maybe 60 minutes a month on average, and I know plenty of people who use less. On my prepaid plan, that costs about $21 (10 cents a minute, plus a dollar each day i use the phone, call it every other day, $6 + $15). Yes, it's a high per-minute fee, but $21 is cheaper than any plan that I have found (Cingular had a $30/mo 250-minute plan a while back, I think).

Re:farewell, anonymity

[boristdog]

You've apparently never had to report many crimes. The reporter is ALWAYS the first suspect.

I used to have to be the one to report any missing items in the IT dept in a state office. I always got the third degree. The investigating officer immediately asked lots of questions about my financial situation.

Why did I have to report all the crimes at this office? I was one of the only white guys there. I REALLY would not have wanted to be in that situation if I were black or hispanic.

Re:Profit != Bad

[p0tat03]

This was a payphone at Union Station in downtown Toronto. I have no idea which one it is - only that my brother (before he got his cell) tried to call me, but only brought 50c in cash, and thus had to run about, buy random crap, just to make change.

Re:No longer required..

[Bud Dickman]

The person was saying that some apartments in Finland don't have ways to ring a particular apartment from the outside so people just use cell phones to call the person in the apartment.

Yeah, the person in the apartment can have a landline. How is the person who is waiting outside supposed to reach that landline if he doesn't have a cell phone? I think you misunderstood THE POST.

Re:farewell, anonymity

[MBGMorden]

If you're that concerned, carry a random cell phone with no service activated. By national law, cell carriers have to accept incoming 911 calls even from phones with no active service plan.

From YOUR link, a lesson in calling people stupid

[nunyadambinness]

"Nearly every scholar agrees that Bell and Watson were the first to transmit intelligible speech by electrical means. Others transmitted a sound or a click or a buzz but our boys [Bell and Watson] were the first to transmit speech one could understand."

That's from your link buddy.

Does not reading a link that proves you are wrong, while obliviously arguing otherwise make you even more stupid then?

Yes. Yes it does.

Payphones will exist, they just won't be AT&T.

[mr_mischief]

AT&T plans to help find alternative payphone operators for people who need them [betanews.com]. The AT&T decision only applies to 13 states serviced by AT&T (SBC) payphones [cellular-news.com]. AT&T only operates about 65,000 of the 1 million payphones in the US [computerworld.com], while Verizon operates about 225,000. AT&T plans to sell as many of the phones and lines to independent operators as they can [msn.com]. They expect the majority of the phones to be bought by someone [iht.com]. They even expect to continue selling wholesale payphone service to payphone owners [marketwatch.com].

It sounds to me they just decided to let someone else field the equipment. There's a lot of exaggeration around this story, but the facts are all over the web. Death of the payphone, indeed. This reaction is kind of like saying IBM getting out of the consumer laptop and desktop PC market was the end of the Windows computer.

Re:No longer required..

[michrech]

It specifically states on the web page that the $1 is only assessed if you actually make a call that day.

Of course, you could have just gone to their web page and verified for yourself. :)

> Either an access plan that is $1 per day (you ONLY get charged the "access fee" of $1 on a day that you actually make a call) + 10 cents per minute, OR, a fee where the minutes are 25 cents.

Serious Question: Are you sure the $1/d access fee is only charged when you make/receive a call? Technically, a phone "accesses" the network every time it's turned on. I've avoided such phones precisely because "access fee of $1/d" sounds like telcospeak for "we're using language that makes you think you only pay to make calls, but we're actually charging $30/month."

Re:farewell, anonymity

[petermgreen]

I'm going to use british prices because that is what I am familiar with, things may be a bit different in the US but I doubt it will be that significant.

First there is the cost of the payphones themselves. Afaict this is about £150 or so for a basic payphone. More than double that if you want something moderately vandal resistant.

If you use POTs there is the cost of the line and if you use phones that work on the pay to start speaking method (many cheap end ones do) the cost of calls where the person at the other end picks up but the user never pays.

If you set up a payphone at a location that is unlikely to be vandalised, is already being cleaned and where there is someone to empty it who is handling cash anyway this is pretty much the limit of your costs.

Lets say you charge 40p for a call up to 20 minuites (same as BT charge) and your calls average 5 minuites With only a negligable proportion going over the 20 minuites. Lets further say you pay 2p per minuite for your calls (probablly a little more than you will actually pay if you choose a decent provider) and avoid line rental by putting the phone on VOIP using an existing internet connection your profit will be 30p per call.

So if your phone cost £150 and your VOIP adaptor £30 your startup cost is £180 you need 600 calls to make back your investment, that is about a call a day for a year. In other words putting a payphone in your shop/hotel/etc for customers/passers by to use will cost you very little and may even make you some profit.

Phone boxes are going to cost a lot more (sorry I don't have figures for how much), beyond the cost of the box itself you have to send people out to clean the boxes, check them for vandalism and empty them. Those people and thier transportation are going to cost you significant money which afaict only the best locations can make back. And since you probablly won't have an existing internet connection you can use you will have to pay line rental to someone too.

The distinct impression I get is phone boxes operated primerally for profit (BT payphones aren't, BT inherited the commitement to maintain them from thier days as a government department) are only viable in a relatively small (and shrinking) number of locations.