What percentage of payphones have been removed in your area?

[not a banana]

I would honestly have to say 90% of payphones in Dallas have been removed. There was a locksmith I went to when I was in high school that had four payphones. Then two of them got removed one day. But I caught them removed the third one! I took pictures. But there were about 15 payphones within a 6 block radius. Two are still standing.

[rbcp]

Definitely at least 90% here in Albany.  When I moved here in 2005, our mall had 13 pay phones and now there's just 1 left.  Convenience stores seem to be keeping them around.  I read an article recently about 7-Eleven pay phones and they claim that 7-Eleven keeps them there for nostalgia purposes only because they don't generate enough income to matter.  Maybe Circle K does the same thing since they still have them too.  Circle K has local phone company phones, but most everywhere else uses Cocots.  We actually have 4 phone booths in town that I know of and they still have phones in them.  The pay phone pictured on the front of the PLA book was taken out less than a week after I took the picture.

[not a banana]

Link to article? I'll google and see if I can come up with it.

Do you have many empty payphone boxes? Seems some companies only grab the phone, but not it's container.

[ApprenticePhreak]

Link to article? I'll google and see if I can come up with it.

Do you have many empty payphone boxes? Seems some companies only grab the phone, but not it's container.

I have 2 payphone boxes. And a single shell. Came with a fresh phone, the internals to hook it up, and a T-key. Got it for trading a tweaker a couple huge black trash bags of tin cans I was collecting to go recycle. Apparently he was having a tough time getting them to take the payphones, so he'd trade them to me for the tin cans.

Oh. But to the original question, most, if not all of the payphones in my area have been removed or just simply no longer work. Even the few 7-Elevens we have, the pay phones are broken there and either have no dial tone, or the phones themselves are just smashed. If you go to Baltimore, however; and not the glorious tourist area of Baltimore, the crack addict and heroine junkie Baltimore, there are still a few dozen pay phones here and there. Most of the time you wouldn't want to hang around them too often though. Junkie needs their fix and they don't have a cellphone anymore because they pawned it to buy the last fix. That phone is their only communication.

[not a banana]

RBCP they probably removed that payphone because you changed out the upper instruction card to one that said "Phone Losers of America"

[nyphonejacks]

i do not think any of the payphones have been removed from my area..

the 2 verizon phones are still around the corner in one direction, and around the corner in the other direction are 2 COCOTS across the street from each other.. just about every subway station has at least 2 payphones, if not more.. not that they all still work.. but i have not seen too many empty pedestals..

in fact when i went to bestbuy today i actually saw a NEW COCOT right inside the entrance , which i thought funny, because the cell phone section is right beyond the front door.. 

[lmnk]

Whats "removing a payphone"? Is that internet code for stealing the prepaid cellphone kiosk?  I've only seen that missing from one local Cumberland Farms.

Actually, I've been surprised, the only payphones I've seen disappear were one set of freestanding payphones on the sidewalk of a busy intersection in town and a COCOT outside the laundromat.  So maybe around 25% are gone.  I assumed its just cheaper to let some of them stand out in the wild and not collect any money than to bother removing them.  The new city I've moved to seems rather void of them though, I've been thinking of liberating one, this day in age I don't think anybody would notice its missing.

[AmishGangsta]

Don't know about percentages, but payphones have disappeared almost entirely from restaurants in my area where they were once plentiful.

They're even becoming scarce in the department stores like Walmart and Kmart.

The only place I see them nowadays is at gas stations and supermarkets.

[MIB]

In my town, there's 4 payphones I know of. 3 are gone leaving the kiosks standing empty. The last one actually accepts incoming calls. 2 of the phone kiosks have a TNI box on top. Whenever I get around to it, I'll get pictures and post them.

MIB

[nomadcowatbk]

In my town, there's 4 payphones I know of. 3 are gone leaving the kiosks standing empty. The last one actually accepts incoming calls. 2 of the phone kiosks have a TNI box on top. Whenever I get around to it, I'll get pictures and post them.

MIB

if the number isn't listed on the payphone that accepts incoming calls, you can dial 1-800-444-4444 to get the number, better hurry

[murd0c]

The payphone I used back in 2004-6 to conf on was removed from the gas station tarmac it was on. Crappy.

[I-baLL]

At first they came for the payphones and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a payphone.

[adivan]

There's only one left in our area. They abolished them all early this year.