
When did you last use one of these? - stretchwithme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payphone
======
frazerb
As a teenager I would spend hours talking to my girlfriend using the payphone
that was across the street from my house. Why ? Just to avoid the hyper-
sensitive ears of my parents. Those things were an essential part of my life!

That girl became my wife, and now we have a seven-year-old son. Unlike me, he
will probably never use one of these. Ever. He'll never have the joy of
standing in the rain/cold/wind chatting to his girlfriend from a payphone.

And to that point, I conjecture that he will never have a POTS wired phoneline
in his own home, he will never buy a newspaper, and perhaps he will never buy
a CD, DVD or petrol-only vehicle.

What do you think ?

~~~
retube
This reminds of the ipad ads that have gone up recently in London. They
feature a book, with authentic-looking "pages" that you can turn.

I fully expect children in 10 years to be wondering what the hell this
graphic/effect is supposed to represent.

~~~
edanm
So you're saying that in _10 years_ , there will be no more books in the
world?

Even if everyone starts using computers/ipads/whatever to read books, I doubt
that all the books in the world would disappear so quickly. I think it will
take closer to 50 years.

------
hardik
Which reminds me: NEVER, EVER use payphones on airports, especially with you
credit card. They don't publish the rates anywhere and rip you off royally,
paid close to USD 250 a couple of years back for about 10-15 mins aggregate
calls from HK / KL to India.

------
pmccool
A couple of weeks ago. Locked my phone in my house along with my keys. I'm
glad they're still around; when they're useful, they're very useful.

~~~
viraptor
If you remembered the number to call, I'm seriously surprised. If you
remembered the number for number information, I'm also a bit surprised...

I doubt a payphone would be of any use to me without my mobile / laptop - the
only number I remember is my mother's - just because she has it since the pre-
contactlist times (I learned it because of dialing the digits often).

OTOH - I used a payphone 3 months ago (and before that... many years ago) in
another country to avoid roaming charges.

~~~
ErrantX
A lot of payphones have the operator either a) printed on the phone body or b)
default to 0 (at least in the UK anyway_

------
ErrantX
They're not even useful for making anonymous calls any more; what with
disposable mobiles being so cheap.

------
Yaggo
I don't remember using a payphone ever, and I'm not _that_ young (born in
1982). Got my first cellphone at age of fifteen (1997). Before that I lived in
rural area where payphones didn't exist. Nowadays, when abroad, I prefer Skype
over wifi or SMS.

------
roel_v
The problem here is that the ones that are left, often only work using calling
cards, not with coins. Which completely negates its only purpose left - as an
emergency 'I locked myself out of my car/house and need to call for help'
apparatus.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
When I was at uni I had a calling card, you could type the number in instead
of swiping it (most payphones then didn't have card readers). You'd dial the
company free-phone number, the card number, the pin and then the number to
call. When I called my gf from turkey I remember taking an age to enter the
number - about 42 digits, the longest number sequence I've had memorised I
think.

~~~
balding_n_tired
Think of all the shoulder surfers at NY Penn Station who have been put out of
business!

------
larard
I remember it clearly. It was the first evening of the Northeast Blackout of
2003 [<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003>] and I was
working in NYC.

My wife had gone to her parents, and I wanted to phone her to say that all was
well. All the cellphone towers were either without power, or overloaded. But
the good old payphones just kept working.

It really is useful that telcos maintained their own power network. I wonder
if this is still the case?

~~~
stretchwithme
I think thats still true. if you have a landline, it will keep working when
the power is out, as long as its not cordless

------
yread
Like a week ago. Batteries of my 2 phones died. And it ate up my ~2 euros
connected me for about a second and then just died with a message "Error".

------
danik
Here in Sweden they've converted some of them to wifi accesspoints, and some
got a phone re-installed. I like that, that's clever.

~~~
smcl
Here in the UK they're often used as public lavatories, whether the phone is
working or not

~~~
corin_
That's clever, too!

------
Edinburger
I saw a documentary about the UK Police a year or so ago and was interested to
see them challenging suspicious-looking people who were using public
telephones. Their theory was that most suspicious-looking people have mobile
phones these days so if they are using a payphone they are often actively up
to no good!

------
Natsu
I think I last used one about a decade ago? They still have some use, though,
so I hate to see them vanishing as much as they are.

My memory might be faulty and I could be confusing incidents, but I think I
might have used one for something connected to that time I called up the guy
whose "affiliates" were spamming a site owned by some friends of mine with
porn site links and had a little chat with him. The problem stopped after
that.

------
swombat
I don't remember, but I keep seeing people using them in London. It's insane
that there's people queuing to use payphones in the street in 2010.

~~~
jkent
In parts of London they double as advertising space promoting members of the
oldest profession. I wonder if this is related.

------
rradu
I was on an Amtrak train a few months back. Apparently they still advertise
that they have payphones on board.

Introduced in 1986: [http://articles.sun-
sentinel.com/1986-06-03/business/8602020...](http://articles.sun-
sentinel.com/1986-06-03/business/8602020325_1_amtrak-metroliner-cellular-
telephone)

------
spectre
Last year. Was on a remote island with no cell phone reception and there
happened to be a pay phone.

------
zeke
April 2, 2010, Jones Gap State Park in Northwest South Carolina. There is no
mobile phone service due to the mountains on either side so they keep a pay
phone available.

------
mahmud
Yesterday, to call someone who has been ignoring my calls.

------
borispavlovic
Here in Switzerland you can send an email for free using terminals that are
installed in lot of these booths

