Pay Phone News

Pay Phone News

February 29, 2008: Local call rates as high as 75 cents being spotted.

The picture above shows the label on a pay phone near me. Apparently, it's not enough for pay phone operators to just remove unprofitable pay phones, some COCOT operators have raised prices once again on their remaining units. I wonder how long these 75 cent phones will last.

April 30, 2007: Canadian pay phone companies may raise prices to 50¢.

A frequent pay phone number contributor has sent me this news item stating that the CRTC has raised the maximum allowable local pay phone call price to 50¢. This price has been common in the USA for a while, but now it will move north across the border into Canada.

June 2, 2004: Qwest buys stadium naming rights in Seattle.

I know this is only marginally phone related, but today Qwest announced their naming rights purchase for Sehawks Stadium in Seattle, which will now be called Qwest Field. At least they can leave the pay phones alone there, since they are already Qwest phones.

May 17, 2004: Canada Payphone Corporation files for bankruptcy.

A Canadian pay phone user has sent me a news item telling of more COCOT company woes in Canada. It seems that people just aren't using pay phones like they used to. Canada Payphone is the only national COCOT company left in Canada, since Paytel Canada went out of business about a year ago.

May 13, 2003: Toronto Airport pay phones back to normal.

A pay phone user from Toronto has informed me that Bell Canada's pay phones at the Toronto Airport have become real pay phones once again and they now charge people for local calls. No word if the cellular phone dispute which started last July is over.

April 25, 2003: Incoming call charges, a disturbing new trend.

Recently, 3 COCOT operators here in Washington have begun the greedy practice of charging for incoming calls. For last couple of years, only 2 companies were doing it, but they didn't have a lot of phones. In 2003, after a change in management, a 3rd company which does have a lot of phones began to charge for incoming calls, so now is the time for something to be said about this. This company, unlike the other 2, has failed to appropriately label their phones about the incoming call charge, with most of their phones deceptively saying "Incoming Calls Allowed." If they are going to charge, the phone should at least say that there will be a charge. While many COCOT operators are not doing so well financially, it seems rather far-fetched that anyone will actually pay for an incoming call, they'll just hang up when told to "please deposit 50 cents." This practice will not help the pay phone operators, it will only discourage use of their pay phones. It also does not appear to be legal in Washington under the WUTC's rules, but complaints to them have been mostly ignored. So pay phone users beware, incoming call charges could be coming to a phone near you.

October 13, 2002: Verizon cuts off access to AT&T coin operated long distance.

Today at a pay phone in my home exchange, I observed that access to AT&T coin line long distance no longer worked. The local switch now interrupts such access and provides the generic "Your call can not be completed as dialed" recording. Prior to this week, coin line calls were still being sent to AT&T's network, but the network was not responding. This outage also affected AT&T 0+ operator assisted services for every phone in my home exchange. The 0+ services have since been restored, but coin-line long distance is no more. Intra-LATA coin-line calls still go through because they are sent to the Verizon long distance network.

July 10, 2002: Qwest cuts off access to AT&T coin operated long distance.

Recently while I was traveling through many Qwest exchanges, I found they had all been programmed not to connect to AT&T coin long distance when I dialed from pay phones. AT&T is planning to stop offering the service, but Qwest has apparently taken that announcement as a green light to turn off coin long distance in all their pay phones. No explanation is given either, calls go to a generic "your call can not be completed as dialed" recording. This behavior has been observed in Washington and Utah, and likely exists in all 14 Qwest states. Intra-LATA calls, which go to Qwest's own coin long distance network, are still being completed. Neither company has produced any news releases for me to link to.

July 9, 2002: Cell Phone vs. Airport dispute results in free pay phones.

In a news item sent to me from Canada, the Toronto airport authority was unable to reach an agreement with wireless phone companies to provide service at the airport. This caused wireless phone service to be shut off at the airport. Since cell phones won't work at the airport now, all the Bell Canada pay phones there have been reprogrammed to allow free local calls until the cell phone dispute is settled.

June 12, 2002: AT&T to phase out coin paid long distance pay phone calls.

AT&T has announced its plans to discontinue its ACTS coin paid long distance service for regular dumb pay phones, citing the high costs of maintaining the dedicated ACTS trunks, and the fact that most people won't pay $4.80 for a 3 minute phone call, AT&T's current coin long distance rate. Once the service is gone, AT&T will advise people to buy pre-paid phone cards to make their long distance calls from pay phones. For more information see this news article or listen to this sound clip (from 2600's Off the Hook radio show).

September 10, 2001: Verizon jumps on 50 cent bandwagon.

Verizon recently announced that they will also begin charging 50 cents for people to make local pay phone calls. They also announced plans to test market 10 cent per minute phones to encourage people to make quick calls, and possibly increase pay phone usage overall. Read more about it here

July 11, 2001: COCOTS also begin charging 50 cents.

This really shouldn't have surprised me, but today I encountered some 50 cent COCOTS. With big phone companies such as Qwest and SBC moving to 50 cents, they have opened the door for COCOTS to do the same and still be somewhat competitive. It appears as if another round of pay phone rate cahnges is on the way.

July 7, 2001: Ameritech to raise pay phone rate to 50 cents

Uh-oh, another major phone company has decided to elevate their pay phone rates in pursuit of more money. This news story confirms this latest act of pay phone greed.

May 14, 2001: Qwest to raise pay phone rates to 50 cents for local calls

I heard this on the radio (KIRO 710 AM) this afternoon, and on the TV news (KCPQ 13) this evening. It seems that use of Qwest's pay phones is dropping, so they have decided to charge 50 cents for local calls in an effort to make more money. Here is an online news story about it.

February 3, 2001: BellSouth to quit pay phone business

Someone sent me a news item stating that BellSouth doesn't want to be in the pay phone business anymore, and that by the end of 2002, all BellSouth pay phones will either be sold to other companies or eliminated altogether. I hope that most of them are transferred to companies that will keep them in place, because I don't want to live in a wolrd without pay phones.

August 1, 2000: Verizon Update.

Bell Atlantic and GTE have now started using their new Verizon name. They now answer thier phones by saying Verizon, and they even have an advertising campaign telling everybody about the new Verizon company. So, as James Earl Jones said in a TV ad today, "GTE is now Verizon."

July 3, 2000: Telephone company mergers and name changes.

On this day, two very large phone company mergers became final. US West merged with Qwest, and GTE merged with Bell Atlantic. US West began using its new name right away, answering their phones as Qwest, advertising that "US West is now Qwest" and they have even started changing the name that appears on their pay phones to Qwest. On the other hand, GTE and Bell Atlantic, which have now become Verizon, have been very slow to show any signs that they did actually merge. GTE still answers their phones by saying GTE, and does not appear to have made any efforts yet to rebrand their pay phones or central office buildings. GTE needs to get going on their name change soon or people will start to wonder whats going on with them.

March 21, 1999: More LECs found in the COCOT business.

During the week of March 13-20, I went on a vacation to Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, and I found more LECs that have COCOTs in places where they are not the LEC. Companies include Sprint, which has many phones in BellSouth towns, BellSouth, which has placed phones in Sprint towns, GTE towns, and towns with independent phone companies. Also more GTE COCOTs were spotted in a Sprint town.

February 20, 1999: COCOT company changes phone service to CLEC.

In Spokane, WA, C/B Tel, a COCOT company, has changed the phone service for most of their pay phones to Nextlink, a CLEC. In doing this, they had to change the number for most of their pay phones. They have also lowered their rates, because of their new phone service arrangement, but it's still a big pain in the butt to have to update all those changed numbers.

October 4, 1998: GTE is in the COCOT business

Another LEC has entered the COCOT business. GTE has installed 10 COCOTS in Lewiston, ID where US West is the LEC. The phones are all Protel 7000 models, each of which has 2 ringers, the electronic one, and the bell ringer installed by GTE. This makes for a rather unique sound when the phone rings. Of all the 10 phones GTE has in Lewiston, 9 are at the airport.
Update: October 11: GTE has also been spotted having a COCOT in Indianapolis, Indiana. The LEC in that city is Ameritech.

September 1998: TDS Telecom changes all their pay phones to PhoneTel

TDS Telecom has changed all of their basic fortress pay phones into PhoneTel COCOTS, while the phone itself still maintains its TDS Telecom look. This has been seen in several places in Washington, Idaho, and Indiana, so it has probably happened all over TDS Telecom areas. A picture of one such phone is available here.

September 13, 1998: Ameritech still in the COCOT business

Ameritech has been spotted using COCOTS again. This time in Sprint territory in Indiana. All Ameritech COCOTS use Elcotel circuity, and look just like normal Ameritech pay phones. One such phone is 317-736-4227. This phone is pictured here.

June 15, 1998: Bell Atlantic is in the COCOT business

It seems that every baby bell is in the COCOT business these days. I have heard from someone in Virginia that Bell Atlantic has installed a few phones in the GTE territory of Fredericksburg, VA (540-785 prefix). Bell Atlantic is using Protel phones for their COCOT service.

May 9, 1998: US west raises pay phone rate in Washington

US West is bringing 35 cent pay phones to Washington and several other states. Here is a news article explaining it all.

Mar. 5, 1998: US West raises pay phone rate in Idaho

US West brings more 35 cent phones into Idaho, here is a news article explaining it all.

Feb. 10, 1998: Ameritech to charge 35 cents in Indiana

The 35 cent disease is spreading to more places every day. For more information, read the news article. This comes nearly two years after the same thing happened in Michigan.

Feb. 6, 1998 update to 35 cent pay phone story

Today GTE has started changing all their pay phones to 35 cents. I was unpleasantly surprised while walking by a pay phone to see a bright orange square sticker under the coin slot. The sticker read "Local calls 35¢" Also they re-recorded the recordings in the phone switch that used to say "The call you have made requires a 25 cent deposit." Now they are more ambiguous and say "The call you have made requires a coin deposit." From now on, Feb. 6, 1998 shall be known as GTE 35 cent pay phone day.

35 cent pay phones are showing up everywhere

The picture above shows the label on the nearest pay phone from the physical location of this web site. Many COCOT companies and even one local phone company have raised the price of local phone calls on pay phones in the state of Washington. The one local phone company that charges 35 cents is Sprint United Telephone. The remaining local phone companies like US West, GTE, and others still charge only 25 cents. This price increase comes from pay phone industry deregulation, which means that now, the state governments no longer have the authority to set pay phone prices.

USwest goes into the COCOT business

A pay phone that looks an awful lot like this one was recently installed in Selah, WA. However, USwest is not the local phone company there. It's Ellensburg Telephone. It looks like a normal Western Electric payphone like all the other US west phones are in nearby Yakima, WA, but it's not. In fact, it is actually a COCOT type phone running on a standard phone line. This is the first time I've ever seen USwest do this, and I'll be looking to see if they do it again. Then I'll update this story. If you want to call the phone, the number is 509-697-9956. After the 3rd ring the internal modem will answer.