Ned Lannamann Aug 24, 2016 at 4:00 am

Coin-Operated Telephones Are Hard to Find in Portland—But They Can Still Be Necessary

Comments

1
A++ content! Great job, Ned, on writing a very interesting article on a subject basically untouched until now(?)! Keep it up, please!
2
http://www.payphone-directory.org/payor.…
3
Almost every MAX station has a payphone.
4
First, the city signed on a new payphone provider earlier this year. I remember reading it, curious if a company was actually going to install new phones. I assumed current companies would just own them until they died.

Second, 9/11 made voice calls really difficult, but text messaging (ah, T9) tended to get through, thanks to their small size and the resilience of packet-based communication.
5
A very interesting commentary and very well written. This subject is something everyone thinks about in the back of their mind but you rarely hear about it in common conversation. We are not just dependent on new technology but the corporations the control it. Back in the day all you needed to make a phone call was a quarter or $0.50. Now you need a contract or an email account with a company that knows who you are and where you are. Our convenient little pocket computers all have cameras and microphones. And while many of us chuckle at the image of a dinosaur-like telephone booth, I fear that we will all regret the disappearance of this Last Vestige of free and private human communication.
6
You only needed a quarter. Well, and to pay usurious long distance rates.

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