The Rise and Fall of the Payphone

[@Rafaga777]

Truly a trip down memory lane. Thanks for this nostalgic video.

[@TomKas66]

In the late 1980s, just before mobile phones, I was working overseas in Hong Kong. At that time, we had calling cards. One evening I needed to call the office in the USA and we were out at dinner. Hong Kong was exactly 12 hours different from the US East Coast. I loved it that when we left the restaurant, I walked right up to a pay phone, and with some Hong Kong change and my calling card, I was on the phone with my East Coast office on the other side of the world in seconds! Life was changing quick back then.

[@scottymoondogjakubin4766]

Most. households dont even have land lines anymore ! Bell started to dissapear in the late 90's ! But now wireless rates are thru the roof !

[@Iggythemovieman]

I remember when you could call any pay phone you wanted from any phone you were on.the phone would ring just as long as you had the telephone number. High School, local pizza parlor, center of town. There were payphone everywhere.

[@douglasstoffa6622]

Not all pay phones accepted incoming calls- especially those 3rd party phones. And some didn't have the station number displayed on them, so you didn't know the outgoing number. However, if you dialed 958, on a baby-Bell pay phone, a recording would read back the phone's number. I've seen, in 2024, pay phones in airports and in NY Penn Station, but by no means in the numbers they once were...

[@uzaiyaro]

Here in Australia, they’ve made basically all payphones free to use, because the carrier (Telstra) realised that it’s probably the most vulnerable people who use them, and who can least afford to pay. They’re not removing or stopping maintenance either. This initiative costs about $2m a year.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

"You could make a call from anywhere at any time." Low signal bars: "Oh, really now; are you so sure?"

[@JIm-w1b]

If you successfully completed a call from a pay phone, you were lucky, and you usually weren't. Most of the time, the phones were out of order, or vandalized, or they took your money, or your call would not go through, or you could not hear, or the operators needed excessive time while you waited and then your call wouldn't go through anyway, and then around 1980, the phone company took out the bells so people couldn't call you back what at times created problems, hassles and situations. If your time ran out, the operator came on for more money, and if you dropped your coin or the coin was jammed or rejected, there went your call. Credit card calls had unreliable billing, you'd get billed in the mail for calls you didn't make and adjustments were a big hassle. Pay phones were a way of life in the old days, you had to have them, but I sure don't miss them today

[@RS-vd6cs]

I’m 72, sixty years ago, “penny loafers “ were popular. Instead of pennies in the tongue cut out, we’d use dimes. Always had a way to make a phone call. Ah, the REALLY good old days! Stay safe!

[@YAZZYUTUBE]

Looking back, using a payphone was disgusting. Thousands of people putting their ear against the ear piece which was never cleaned or sanitized. And even worse, people spitting while speaking into the mouthpiece, then an unsuspecting person picks up the receiver behind them and rests the handset against their face.

[@21stcenturyozman20]

In Australia, the number of payphones has been reduced since the advent of the mobile (a.k.a. cell) phone. However, those that remain no longer require coins. The vandalism rate - often spurred by desperation for cash - cost the owner (Telstra, AU's publicly owned telco) a fortune to repair and maintain, so now they don't require coins - and consequently rarely get vandalised any more. Given that mobile signals are often weak or useless in AU's vast remotenesses, the (free) payphone remains a crucial convenience.

[@Jcmprofessional]

In Australia, payphones are now free except for international calls

[@chargermopar]

I have one in my front yard and it still works!

[@OmegaWolf747]

There was once one at the drug store three blocks from my childhood home. It's long gone now. 📞

[@samfeldman1508]

I was telling my kids about a time I was late for work and used a pay phone to call my boss. Their response? “What’s a pay phone?”🤷‍♂️😉😄

[@davebarron5939]

Yep, remember them well, and unlike modern cell phones they always worked everywhere.

[@marietarallo3403]

I just watched this on my phone.

[@JohnJohn-ts6ux]

Here in Australia back in the mid 90s they used to get robbed they used to take out the coin boxes back then, now today hardly you see a payphone they are a little more convenient in the city but still not as much in the 90s they were everywhere in in the city in the suburbs now these days pay phones you see them in every train station and the phone calls are free so you don't need to pay for them, thanks for your videos I always am I your videos keep it up😀

[@dreammix9430]

Ah yes. The humble pay phone. Oh the memories

[@lisasdfwhightechworld9946]

Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane.

[@richinoregon]

Pay phones DO rely on electricity! It's just that in the Central Offices, there were literally tons of batteries to keep the system running in case the commercial grid went down. That is why the POTS (Plain old telephone system) is still more reliable in power outages than other systems. (And I am a retired Comcast tech who installed and serviced phones in their system.)

[@janspl]

To day the old telephone booths are recycling bins for used books. You can place your unwanted books so others can take them and read them.

[@alecl1102]

Here in Australia, payphone's are free to use to any other landlines or mobile phone within Australia

[@t.p.0104]

Used to make prank calls on operators with pay phones😂

[@mikesahle1193]

Thank you 🙏 for sharing I wonder 💭 what great 👍 technology will show up for the next generation ☝️👋☮️

[@thejourney1369]

I still have a calling card that I purchased 21 years ago for a trip. I had a prepaid cell phone and the card was cheaper. It still has minutes on it.

[@288theabe]

Crepes, I remember checking for quarters in these things as a kid 🤣🤣🤣

[@JIm-w1b]

Phone booths were a kind of cultural joke. People slept in them, had sex in them, went to the bathroom in them, delivered hidden drugs in them, partied and got drunk in them, used tape recorders to sing and make recordings in them, pulled practical jokes like smearing grease all over the handset for to get in people's ears, used them for temporary kennels to keep their big dogs while the owners went shopping. There were unwanted babies abandoned in phone booths, well I could go on, but the phone booth was a thing where everybody thought was so much fun to misuse it

[@АнтонРедькин-н2с]

I'm studying English by your channel

[@kenmore01]

No doubt a Petrie dish, but somehow we survived! 😂 They did get expensive toward the end though. For the longest time, a local call was 5¢ then it doubled to 10¢. Eventually going to almost a dollar before being phased out. Kinda like postage is doing.

[@Vet-7174]

I use to work with coin counting machines for the pay phones

[@Star_Jewel_Realm]

Payphone are still around. We got an app for that.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

What's the point of removing a phone just because it wasn't that profitable? Why not just leave it in there indefinitely until it's found to be broken?

[@philthy903]

Payphones in Australia are now completely free.

[@Thomas-yr9ln]

I was a little boy I would call my mom on a pay phone from school.

[@vickysubba5602]

Now.. that's something interesting 🎉

[@matthewblouin4267]

Another Movie that use a Payphone was in The Beatles first film A Hard Day's Night 1964

[@АнтонРедькин-н2с]

Thank you from Russia

[@familydogg1234]

Some payphones could receive calls- until the new millenium they figured out it was for addicts calling out

[@MrBrigantesemore]

Antonio Meucci was the inventor of telephone!!!

[@richardl6751]

At 7:34 He isn't using the phone properly. For that type of phone you must talk into the mouth piece.

[@rayfridley6649]

Many pay phones required the coin deposit when the called person answers. If they didn't answer, deposit was not made.

[@BODUKE3201]

They r good to have around still not just cause of week signal of cell service but incase ur cell is dead and not able to charge it

[@Thomas-yr9ln]

I love the Red pay phones they had in UK.

[@kennyb.729]

Alexander Graham Bell was Black and Y'all need to acknowledge that!!!

[@lunarknight7518]

First! Love the content.😊

[@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536]

🌎👍❤

[@Richardkelley-jl5fl]

First comment! 😊

[@eagleMMMm]

Thanks to pay phone