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More Payphones Disappearing
from the bye-bye dept
The rise of the mobile phone has pretty much killed the business model for the once ubiquitous pay phone, to the point that big phone companies like BellSouth are trying to ditch the business altogether. At the same time, however, politicians are worried about those who can't afford mobile phones who may need to make calls. While some smaller private pay phone companies are likely to step in to the space, it's clearly a shrinking space. Of course, keeping the payphones and using them as WiFi access points (like Verizon is trying in New York) seems like a smart move - building on the real estate the large carriers already have, though that could become less important with a growth in wide area wireless technologies.
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No Subject Given
The worries about poor people having no means to make phone calls are unfounded - witness the "phone lady" business model that's now employed in rural areas in Asia & Africa. A person buys a mobile phone and then rents it out by the minute to the villagers, sometimes even making appointmets to come to their homes. It's the payphone with added convenience.
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Oh well, it should only take a year or two until we have an additional fee on our mobile bills to supplement poor people so they too can have mobile phones.
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