Zone1 Should the government bring back payphones?

[Nate99]

I'd appreciate it if they would...then I might not have to deal with strangers asking me for permission to make a call on my phone.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

I'd appreciate it if they would...then I might not have to deal with strangers asking me for permission to make a call on my phone.

What kind of people are these, where they feel comfortable asking you to use your phone?

As far as your question, I don't see the point in bringing back payphone but I REALLY would love it if I could have a landline installed

 

[Dr.Destructo]

I'd appreciate it if they would...then I might not have to deal with strangers asking me for permission to make a call on my phone.

Tell them to fuck off.

Or charge them $50.00 per second...........payable up front.

I've NEVER had anybody ask to use my phone.

 

[AZrailwhale]

What kind of people are these, where they feel comfortable asking you to use your phone?

As far as your question, I don't see the point in bringing back payphone but I REALLY would love it if I could have a landline installed

Where do you live that you can’t get a land line installed? The dial tone part of the phone companies is still regulated. The have to install a residential land line no matter what it costs them. When I worked as a service tech, we spent five million dollars to provide residential service to less than a hundred ranches on the border of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Many of the ranches had a Pac Bell line AND a Verizon line from Santa Barbara County so they could make local calls. The County line was the Local Area Transit Area boundary. Calling your neighbor one lot across the boundary was a long distance call.

 

[Dr.Destructo]

Where do you live that you can’t get a land line installed? The dial tone part of the phone companies is still regulated. The have to install a residential land line no matter what it costs them. When I worked as a service tech, we spent five million dollars to provide residential service to less than a hundred ranches on the border of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Many of the ranches had a Pac Bell line AND a Verizon line from Santa Barbara County so they could make local calls. The County line was the Local Area Transit Area boundary. Calling your neighbor one lot across the boundary was a long distance call.

They still have landlines around here.
The cable companies are always pushing their "package deals" for cheap, if you get your cable, internet, and landline all in one deal.

 

[toobfreak]

I'd appreciate it if they would...then I might not have to deal with strangers asking me for permission to make a call on my phone.

The bigger question is why take them all away?

I can see removing some, but THEY WERE ALREADY THERE and not really costing much more just to keep them there. Seems that it should be a right to have reasonable access to a phone. A lot of people are buying cellphones because THEY HAVE NO CHOICE, then the phone company takes out payphones because they say no one needs them. Thing is, sometimes even if you have a cellphone, they die or break on you and you still need a phone, as proven by people asking for them.

 

[Dekster]

Where do you live that you can’t get a land line installed? The dial tone part of the phone companies is still regulated. The have to install a residential land line no matter what it costs them. When I worked as a service tech, we spent five million dollars to provide residential service to less than a hundred ranches on the border of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Many of the ranches had a Pac Bell line AND a Verizon line from Santa Barbara County so they could make local calls. The County line was the Local Area Transit Area boundary. Calling your neighbor one lot across the boundary was a long distance call.

Don't know if it is still this way but there were places in West Virginia that had these weird calling bands where you might be able to call someone across town with no extra charge but have to pay a few extra cents calling someone down the street. It just depended on what band you and they were in and there didn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason as to how these bands were mapped. Where my aunt lived in WV, I think she was on a party-line until in the 1990's.

 

[Dr.Destructo]

The bigger question is why take them all away?

I can see removing some, but THEY WERE ALREADY THERE and not really costing much more just to keep them there. Seems that it should be a right to have reasonable access to a phone. A lot of people are buying cellphones because THEY HAVE NO CHOICE, then the phone company takes out payphones because they say no one needs them. Thing is, sometimes even if you have a cellphone, they die or break on you and you still need a phone, as proven by people asking for them.

Since people have mobile phones, and cash is pretty much a thing of the past............nobody was really using them.

And the ones that ARE left, are in places nobody is going to go to.......like back alley dives, or dark corners somewhere on the outside of a building.

Most public phones got vandalized anyway, so it was more costly keeping them repaired, than just removing them.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

What kind of people are these, where they feel comfortable asking you to use your phone?

As far as your question, I don't see the point in bringing back payphone but I REALLY would love it if I could have a landline installed

Why don't you have one? All internet and cable providers will tack on a phone. Usually for free.

 

[toobfreak]

Since people have mobile phones, and cash is pretty much a thing of the past............

In part, one of the reasons why no one was using them is because cellphones were forced on people.

Not for the phones, but for the digital and internet tracking,

to collect data on where you go and what you do.

Same with the coins. Everything was moved to electronic because that way, they can collect data on how and where you spend your money,

better still, CONTROL your money, cut you off, take it if they want.

 

[AZrailwhale]

They still have landlines around here.
The cable companies are always pushing their "package deals" for cheap, if you get your cable, internet, and landline all in one deal.

Yep and you are foolish to depend on the cable company for dial tone. Cable nodes are dependent on commercial power. Within hours of an interruption they go down like cell phones. Land lines are powered from the TELCO central office which has a diesel generator and between one and two weeks worth of fuel for it,

 

[AZrailwhale]

Since people have mobile phones, and cash is pretty much a thing of the past............nobody was really using them.

And the ones that ARE left, are in places nobody is going to go to.......like back alley dives, or dark corners somewhere on the outside of a building.

Most public phones got vandalized anyway, so it was more costly keeping them repaired, than just removing them.

They were also used by drug dealers and other criminals to avoid taps.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Where do you live that you can’t get a land line installed? The dial tone part of the phone companies is still regulated. The have to install a residential land line no matter what it costs them. When I worked as a service tech, we spent five million dollars to provide residential service to less than a hundred ranches on the border of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Many of the ranches had a Pac Bell line AND a Verizon line from Santa Barbara County so they could make local calls. The County line was the Local Area Transit Area boundary. Calling your neighbor one lot across the boundary was a long distance call.

I hear what you're saying however from my perspective, if the phone stops working because it's battery backup runs down, that's not a real landline, which is the ONLY thing my ISP/cable company will offer, at least to me. Who knows what other people can get.

I've lived through several government declared emergencies due to earthquakes in southern California and even when the electricity went out, the telephones still always worked which is the reason for my wanting a landline.

Ironically, less than 30 days after I first "temporarily" relocated to the Seattle, we had a major earthquake. I was stunned because I thought I had left those behind