You can still find pay phones if you know where to look. There is an element of the citizenry that prefers to use landlines when they are conducting business. 
AT&T dropping my landline service.
- Thread starter fiasconva
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You can still find pay phones if you know where to look. There is an element of the citizenry that prefers to use landlines when they are conducting business.
That was true in the analog days. Landlines are much easier to intercept than digital cell phones.
When we first came up here to the lake (1985) as summer people we had Party line service. Four on a party and other that one summer with a big mouth woman who lived on the phone it was OK and very cheap. (I took care of the big mouth so we could use the phone occasionally.)
Built our new year around house in 2003-4 and the phone company put us on a private line, we keep the same phone number, just at a triple cost. We have no cell service yet, but its coming, have heard that for over 10 years!
Our small phone company has far less trouble than the computer companies have so we are much safer with copper wire service.
Hardly ever get a phone out but computer systems can be out for days at a time. Like been said by other posters we have a alarm system and it works very well. We have generator but if no power in the area anything cable wise is out, LL rule!
Built our new year around house in 2003-4 and the phone company put us on a private line, we keep the same phone number, just at a triple cost. We have no cell service yet, but its coming, have heard that for over 10 years!
Our small phone company has far less trouble than the computer companies have so we are much safer with copper wire service.
Hardly ever get a phone out but computer systems can be out for days at a time. Like been said by other posters we have a alarm system and it works very well. We have generator but if no power in the area anything cable wise is out, LL rule!
We had AT&T since 1964 when we got married. We added cell phones back in the early 2000's and went with At&T. We were disappointed with some "dead spots" around our area, but when I went on a Prairie Dog hunt in SD I found out they had no At&T service in the entire SE 1/4 of the state. When I came home, I went to their office and asked to see their coverage map. They did show it to me and it indicated less than half the country had coverage and that was limited to the larger cities. We switched to U S Cellular and I have never found any place we didn't have coverage in the U S. I was standing out in a field in the middle of nowhere in SD, and was talking to home in IL clear as a bell. WE travel to CO and WA and all over those states no problem. They evidently maintain contracts to "utilize" networks all over the country when they don't have towers themselves. We dropped any land line about 5 years ago. Our cell phones have internet access, and while we didn't make phone calls, we sent emails from all over Europe.
Not if you have a Stingray. Plus phone records, including the content of text messages can be subpoenaed. And of course, cell phones can be tracked by which sites they hit and by their GPS data.
Pay phones are also anonymous unless you can pin down a certain user to a certain number and place them there at the time of the call.
Or so I've been told by people whose job it is to know these things.
Pay phones are also anonymous unless you can pin down a certain user to a certain number and place them there at the time of the call.
Or so I've been told by people whose job it is to know these things.
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I've used Ooma (internet based) for about five years and don't miss AT&T at all. The equipment is cheap and all I pay per month are the state and local taxes (about $5).
jdh
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When was the last time you've seen an operational public pay phone?
My home phone was converted to VOIP many years ago, number changed several times (not by choice).
My mother has had a POTS line with same number since 1975.
The last time I drove down "Methadone Mile" in Roxbury, MA. So, about a year or so.
They are very common outside of corner variety stores. Most are not owned by the phone company, but by private companies. The same ones that operate the ATM machines inside that charge exorbitant fees to get your money out of your bank.
If you drive through inner city areas, you'll see them attached to the outside wall of some variety stores.
They are very common outside of corner variety stores. Most are not owned by the phone company, but by private companies. The same ones that operate the ATM machines inside that charge exorbitant fees to get your money out of your bank.
If you drive through inner city areas, you'll see them attached to the outside wall of some variety stores.
jdh
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Around here the store owners had them removed to try to discourage the vagrants and drug dealers from hanging around.
I dropped My AT&T landline after getting a cell and Verizon. I stay with Verizon because of the coverage. Every provider claims to be the best, but Verizon is the only one that works while I am Elk hunting, fishing, or skiing. My hunting buddies all use My phone. I did start with C Cellular and it was a joke, couldn't make a call from inside the gun show in Loveland, had to go outside.
prairieviper
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We don't have AT&T but do have a landline for our telephone and internet needs. There is just no way to have reliable cell phone service where I live or a better deal than what I have with the local telephone company.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Yea they call them inmatesYou can still find pay phones if you know where to look. There is an element of the citizenry that prefers to use landlines when they are conducting business.
mckenney99
Member
Around here it's pretty obvious that AT&T landlines are on their last legs. They no longer maintain the junction boxes along the buried lines. Everywhere you look the boxes are broken open with wires exposed to the elements and above ground lines having trees leaning against them, just waiting to bring the whole thing down.
Two years ago I had to call my Internet/Home Phone (lined) provider, AT&T, and it took the tech 3 separate service calls before he could come up with a service line that worked for more than 15 minutes, and he wound up calling in the fiber optic guys to to tap into a fiber optic service line.
At that time the tech told me that AT&T's plan was to have all hardwired services disconnected within 5 years.
Two years ago I had to call my Internet/Home Phone (lined) provider, AT&T, and it took the tech 3 separate service calls before he could come up with a service line that worked for more than 15 minutes, and he wound up calling in the fiber optic guys to to tap into a fiber optic service line.
At that time the tech told me that AT&T's plan was to have all hardwired services disconnected within 5 years.
That's outside my area of expertise. Luckily. 
When I had a day inside HQ assignment we'd often go down the street and have lunch out of the office, just to be able to eat without interruption. We'd sit in a marked city vehicle (not police) and watch the Methodonians walk around and ply their trade.
We used to refer to Methadone as "Heroin Helper."
When I had a day inside HQ assignment we'd often go down the street and have lunch out of the office, just to be able to eat without interruption. We'd sit in a marked city vehicle (not police) and watch the Methodonians walk around and ply their trade.
We used to refer to Methadone as "Heroin Helper."
Yeah, but I pay for their calls to me . . .
OP
fiasconva
Member
AT&T came in a couple of years ago and upgraded from the copper wiring to fiber optic to my house. But they said lack of customers in this area led to the decision to end service to this area. I spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon this morning and ended up switching all my services, land line, internet, and tv to them. With their bundle packages and the discounts ,10% off if you are a vet and another 10% if you have cell phone service with them, I'll be saving $90.00 a month from what I'm paying now for AT&T phone and Cox cable TV and internet service.
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I ended the land line and discovered cell phone has as an on-off button! So I turn off the cell phone when I get home and have discovered the closest to Heaven one can get on this earth—NO PHONE!!!
You can still find pay phones if you know where to look. There is an element of the citizenry that prefers to use landlines when they are conducting business.
I knew I was old the first time my kids saw a payphone and I had to explain what it was.
jdh
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We replaced the pay phones in about 1992 with a system where they paid with their commissary account.
