Or for your youngsters - have you ever seen a working pay phone at all?
Just a random question I’m curious about.
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There’s a big bus hub for all our local buses in my city. Well 25 years ago, it also had a payphone out there in the center. Well across the street is a normal bus stop going the other way that only 3 buses pick up at.
So I sat at the small bus stop. And watched until I saw a guy use the payphone. Then he’s standing around. Well, I had the phone number to call that payphone in cell phone. And yes, we had cell phones 25 years ago. Mine was a 1 inch puke green original gameboy style screen, and text messaging was still off into the future, but I could still make calls.
So I’d sit at that bus stop across the street and watch. When someone stood close to the payphone I’d call. When someone answered I’d have one of those hear pieces they had before bluetooth existed the single cord, plugged into the headphone jack. It’s not noticable from across the street.
So I’d call that phone number, and some random person would answer.
“Hello?”
“Pssshhhh, why are you wearing that stupid Baltimore Oriols hat? You look like a doofus! You need a Cleveland Indians hat!”
“Who is this?”
“Jim Thome” (for anyone who doesn’t know, Jim Thome was the power hitting first baseman for the Indians at the time)
“Really?”
“No. hangs up”
But my favorite one was when a guy named “Mel” walked by. I knew he was named Mel because he had a work nametag on as he walked past me. Something about that name made teenage me giggle inside. So he goes over near the phone, waiting for a bus. I call that payphone.
“Hello?”
(In a deep gutteral voice that today would best be described as Christian Bale’s batman mixed with Jigsaw. Even though neither of those movies had come out yet)
“Hello Mel. I’ve been expecting you.”
“Who is this?”
“Satan”
Then, he just drops the phone, starts screaming, and starts running for his life, as everyone around him has no idea what is even happening. That was the best. 40 years old now, and I STILL laugh at that mental image of him running under that bridge, and out of my view…but then still hearing him in the distance slowly fading away for 15 minutes as he ran.
No, I don’t have any payphones in my city anymore, and I’m sad. 40 year old me is ABSOLUTELY bored enough to do this shit today if I could.
You were a rotten 15 year old bastard! Pretty frickin hilarious.
Were these all just random people that happened to be using a pay phone at a bus stop? Or was it more of a scene where people were making potential drug deals and things over that pay phone? Or do you even know at all…
They weren’t even using the payphone. They were just waiting for a bus, and the phone would start ringing. Funny thing about payphones. They don’t have voicemail. They just ring…forever. Eventually people would get annoyed. Most would just pick up and hang up, but some would answer.
Payphones across Australia are free for domestic calls, and also transmit free wifi. :)
To add to this, you could call Santa last Christmas. The little one absolutely love it.
Yeah they’re everywhere in my city still, they’ve even made them all free
On second thought, maybe they aren’t a payphone if they’re free 🤔
LOL
They’re Freephonestm
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Wow that’s kinda cool. I work in the telephony industry and didn’t even know this was a thing!
have you ever seen a working pay phone at all?
I have a brand new (spare part) dialing disc somewhere in one of the boxes in the basement. Just in case someone wants to show it to the grandchildren ;)
Super neat. So a disc for a rotary dial phone?
nope, it is all gone.
- Pay phone using card is already gone since we transit into coin ops phone.
- Our country once have coin but the quality is so bad that no one use coin anymore. => Coin Ops phone quickly obsolete
- People use mobile nowday a lot. A non-smart mobile cost 25$, a smart phone cost $100. Sim card cost 5$, with out without personal paperwork (prefilled with stranger info). You can buy an anounymous sim card 5$ anywhere on street.
There are still a fair number in Japan. My hunch is that it also helps with disaster planning since cell towers will only have so many hours of battery/generator power. After hurricane Ike hit Houston, we lost cell service for a while, at least where I was, as the towers lost generator/battery and power. Those who had landlines could often still communicate (but it depended upon where, of course, since some phone lines were taken out as well).
There is at least one, in a building lobby near here. Not exactly a public place though.
Look at https://futel.net/ for a guerrilla effort to install free ones in various places.
Yes, we have in one in our tiny rural village here in Australia. I think its good, all calls are now free calls on “payphones” in Australia, so people in difficult domestic situations could use it for example.
there is one right across my building, and I saw someone using it maybe a couple months ago.
it was such weird reminder of childhood and buying minutecards on vacations.
Exist? yes.
Do they work? I have no idea. I’ve never seen anyone use them in like 15+ years.
There’s one across the street from my apartment building. In this day and age that’s probably enough info to dox myself.
My small town has the stand for a public phone on the corner of one of the convenience stores, but the phone itself was removed years ago.
The only public phones I’ve seen in the last 20 or so years that were still operational, were the phone banks at airports I’ve been in. And some of those were not even old style phones; they were video phones that I am guessing worked off the internet and not a normal phone line.
Once in a while, you’ll find broken down ones on the walls in diners and schools.
Last one I knew of got vandalized during the pandemic and was never repaired.
