About 100,000 pay phones left in the United States, says the FCC

WCMH-TV ^ | March 19, 2018 | Joe Clark

[2ndDivisionVet]

I placed payphones back in the 1980's. Averaged $900 a day but some days I made many thousands of dollars.

[dfwgator]

I remember as a kid walking around the city checking every pay phone to see if there was any change in the coin return. I usually could find a few bucks a day, enough to get a good candy allotment for the day.

[Dan in Wichita]

I remember back in the early 1980’s went the cost to make a call from a pay phone increased from 10 cents to 25 cents. Talk about alot of upset people!

[dfwgator]

Superman hardest hit.

[\/\/ayne]

Besides my phone booth I have 3 or 4 payphones.

[beaversmom]

This looks like an interesting article:

What Killed the Pay Phone?:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/object-lesson-phone-booth/515385

[ThomasThomas]

Can we still drop a dime on someone?

[adorno]

When all the phone booths disappear, where will Superman change?

[EnglishOnly]

At least they worked......all the time.

I’ve never got a recording from a pay phone.....”Sorry, NO Signal”.

[adorno]

The next countdown regarding phones, will be about when wired home phones will also disappear.

[beaversmom]

Rosemary’s Baby Phonebooth Scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwRmCGtWGaE

[CJ Wolf]

Used to do that. Get a couple quarters to play pacman. Also could do the paperclip trick.

[beaversmom]

Birds’ Phone Booth Scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15HPy4x73g

[z3n]

I did that when I was a kid. I probably found change in a phone nearly as often as I didn’t. Usually only a few smaller shinies jingled into the bottom, but it always felt like you just won something.

[beaversmom]

Rainman phone booth scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXA9OIrerTs

[z3n]

The next countdown regarding phones, will be about when wired home phones will also disappear.
~~~
They didn’t?

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

When I was a kid working in a filling station the payphone screwed up and about 2 or 3 minutes after they hung up it would refund all the money they inserted. Sweet!

[Bratch]

When all the phone booths disappear, where will Superman change?

It's been a problem for years.

[\/\/ayne]

Video: Phone booth scene from "Scanners."

[adorno]

They didn’t?

Not yet.

We don't have wired phones in my house, though the wires are still there.

But, give phone companies (and the government) enough time, and wired phones will be a thing of the past and illegal.