AT&T Exiting Pay Phone Business

It's not a surprising move, given that more than 80 percent of Americans own cell phones, although it's a worrisome trend for those who can't afford a wireless handset.

Reuters (via Yahoo! News) reports that AT&T announced today that it will ease itself out of the pay phone business, and it'll be completely done by the end of 2008. AT&T has pay phones in 13 states, including two of the biggest, California and Texas, according to Reuters. AT&T execs said the company would still provide wholesale service to independent pay phone operators, who may end up picking up some of the slack.

Of course, cell phones are pretty much to blame for the rapid demise of the once-ubiquitous pay phone. Bloomberg News notes that about 80 percent of Americans own a cell phone. Meanwhile, the humble-yet-reliable pay phone has become more and more scarce: only about a million are left in the United States, compared to 2.6 million in 1998, according to AT&T. Luckily, some big telecom players are still in the pay phone business—Verizon Communications, for one, which has a healthy number of phones in the Northeast (according to the Wall Street Journal).

So what's the big deal? Almost everyone has a cell phone anyway, right? Well, do the math and you'll see that 20 percent of Americans are still without cell phones, and they'll have fewer options when they're out and about and need to dial for help. (And what about if your cell phone is dead, or you're out of service range?) Also, while cell phones will make 911 calls whether they have service or not, e911 service (which pinpoints a dialer's location for emergency workers) still isn't nearly as reliable as tracing calls from landlines. What's the solution? You tell me.

Related:
AT&T to end dwindling pay phone business [Reuters, via Yahoo! News]