For some unbeknown reason, a telephone company installed three new phone boxes on the high street in my town last month. Two are no more than 100 yards from each other. My cynical theory is that they are being used to track footfall using wifi connections (but I have nothing to prove that). Very odd considering most councils are aiming to reduce the amount of 'street furniture'.
Last call for the phone booth?
31–40 of 57 posts
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#32Here in the UK the red phone booths are such a cultural symbol that they tend to stay around, but it's rare to see one with a phone inside. Villages get creative in finding uses for their phone both. I have seem them used as a mini-library or housing a defibrillator.
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#33I've been wondering if everyone should carry a backup phone now that there are so few phone booths? We seem so dependent on them and don't really plan for what to do if it dies or gets lost/stolen.
I don't know what I would do if I ended up somewhere far from home without a phone.
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#34I've been wondering if everyone should carry a backup phone now that there are so few phone booths? We seem so dependent on them and don't really plan for what to do if it dies or gets lost/stolen. I don't know what I would do if I ended up somewhere far from home without a phone.
If everyone has a phone can't you just ask another person to borrow theirs or make a call for help in an emergency?
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#35I've been wondering if everyone should carry a backup phone now that there are so few phone booths? We seem so dependent on them and don't really plan for what to do if it dies or gets lost/stolen. I don't know what I would do if I ended up somewhere far from home without a phone.
I do this, not just for connectivity but also because frequently I am not near an Apple store or in a city where such is not 24/7. If I break my iPhone at 22:00 on a Saturday, I am capital-f fucked.
In addition to my daily driver 7+, I keep the previous gen (6S+ presently) on me with a different carrier, and a 5C in my bag as an emergency spare.
Next year the 7+ will become the backup and the 7S+/8+ will go in my pocket, and I'll sell the 6S+.
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had to explain to a ~16 year old why it was called "dialing".
My parents didn't get rid of their rotary phone until the late 90s. Growing up, I always found it funny when my friends didn't know how to use it
My friend's parents were the same -- they did it on principle because the telco charged for touch tone. Never mind that it cost the telco substantially more to continue supporting the "rotary" infrastructure, I'm sure it was a cash cow.
I remember being awed by their new PC with its amazingly fast 9600 baud modem. And then it dialed out. ATDP. Tick. Tick tick tick. ....
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#37How am I going to Hack The Planet now?
Yes, this is a payphone...
...don't ask.
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#38I was in Norway last summer. They had a number of phone booths standing around. They don't work, but they have some signs that they are under some kind of cultural heritage protection or something alike. I found that kinda nice.
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#39I've been wondering if everyone should carry a backup phone now that there are so few phone booths? We seem so dependent on them and don't really plan for what to do if it dies or gets lost/stolen. I don't know what I would do if I ended up somewhere far from home without a phone.
If everyone has a phone can't you just ask another person to borrow theirs or make a call for help in an emergency?
Now that you say that I feel like cell phones now need to have a "guest mode" web browser, maps and phone, but everything else walled off
Re: Last call for the phone booth?
#40I've been to a couple private clubs where cell phones are banned, except for in the phone booths that were installed 50+ years ago, sort of odd to see them disappearing everywhere, but then staying oddly relevant in random places