Payphones Still Make Millions of Dollars

Megalith

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While most now have a cell phone, many still use those rusted, quarter-eating boxes. According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s 2017 monitoring report, payphones in Canada made $22 million CAD in 2016. The US numbers are similar: The FCC reports that in 2015 payphones made $286 million, which is comparable for a population ten times the size of Canada’s.

It might not be much in the grand scheme of the multi-billion-dollar telecommunications industry, but it goes to show that some old and decrepit (and, crucially, shared) technologies still play a key role in many people’s lives. Payphones are out here making money while some of the newest, hottest, and most “successful” tech companies around are still figuring out how to get their revenues to climb ahead of their yearly losses.
 
Most of the old payphones in my area are gone now. I remember when WalMart had them in their lobbies, there was one outside the grocery store, and another off the highway coming into town, and one in the lobby of the restaurant I worked at. All gone.
 
Yea, pay phones in the uk are all but non existant nowadays, i remember when their was one on every second street or so, but they are mostly all gone.
 
Woah. I have not seen a payphone in like forever. Do the emergency ones on the side of a long deserted road?
 
I would not have guessed that. I would have figured the installation and upkeep would be more than what they bring in. * I didn't actually read the article though in case it went over this *
 
I see them so rarely now that I'm actually shocked when I come across one. Like blue public mailboxes.
 
I wonder how many of those payphones are in "restricted cell areas" such as jails and prisons. And, I'm sure people are still resentful of those "electronic leashes".
 
Came here to chime in like everyone else. how can they be making money on payphones when their are none? I live in BC and have not seen a payphone anywhere in years.
 
I saw one at a state park last year. My kids couldn't believe it.
About 10 years ago, I had a friend whose job was to drive around to different cities in the midwest and collect the change out of the phones. I think he covered 4-5 cities? He was making ok money at the time for a simple job (although you could get robbed - he was briefed to give the money if he was robbed). He said the worse part of the job was finding a parking place in some of the areas - kind of sketchy at times.
 
There are two payphones next to a shady convenience store across the street from me. Downtown toronto.

They cost a fucking dollar.
 
I'd guess there are still pay phones in rural areas and small towns with poor or no cell service. Do they still have entire walls of them at airports? I know they used to, but I haven't paid attention enough to notice them in the past 10 years.
 
I wouldn't even have a chance of remembering the phone number of anyone I wanted to call even if I did need to use a pay phone.
 
How the hell would Ethan Hunt contact his people if there wasn't a pay phone around?!?
 
I can't even remember the last time I saw a payphone.

I wonder where all of them are located...

I think a big part of the reason people think they never see payphones is because they have no reason to look for one. I'm sure many people walk right past the occasional payphone but it doesn't register.
 
I see them in my home town. One sitting in the Walmart entrance and the store is only like 3 years old. Also have them in our high school.
 
Heh, while here in Norway all the payphones have been dismantled and removed. Except they did leave 100 of them standing around the country as a kind of "living" memorial of the days before the cellphone.
 
Seriously, where the hell are there still actual working pay phones.......like put coins in. Aren't kids like "WTF is a coin?" or something!? Mind officially blown. Kinda like having to explain to your kids WTF that thing was that htey use in War Games to get a dial tone...."you see, son, back in the day, you opened a can by pulling off its tab, which then became razor-sharp rings that they let the kids play with while they had their 'key parties'...".....
 
I had to use one a year ago when I found myself stranded and my cell dead. They don't take quarters anymore, and are expensive as frig. The one I found required a phone card purchased at the gas station behind it and was $2.00/min. Cheapest phone card available was $20.
 
I had to use one a year ago when I found myself stranded and my cell dead. They don't take quarters anymore, and are expensive as frig. The one I found required a phone card purchased at the gas station behind it and was $2.00/min. Cheapest phone card available was $20.

Ah, now it makes total sense :) TY. All calls routed through NigeriaTelCo.com
 
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