Do you think pay phones and most residence land lines?

Question

will become a thing of the past due to cell phones?

Answer 1

as someone that used to own payphones, I can say yes, payphones are going to be history. My phones did best in the high crime, low income areas, and now, the people that used my phones can go to the corner market and buy a disposable cell phone.

as for residence phones, only someone that does not know how the phone system works would dump the wired residence line. The Bell system phones are powered by a huge bank of batteries, so in a power failure, you will not lose  your phone, and since the old phone system is "hardened", you will be less likely to loose the phone during emergencies.

Cell phones are handy tools, but time and time again, they have not worked during emergencies.

additional from me:

I am not only an ex telcom tech, and a network engineer, I am also  a disaster services volunteer. From experiance, I can tell you that cell towers DO NOT have generator backp. After Katrina, the FCC has mandated all wireless carriers to provide UP TO 8 hours of backup, but most carriers have not been able to comply with this request. Cell towers are a weak link, and the worst offender is elevated fiber optics that are used as the network backbone. A recent submarine cable failure should underscore that the Internet (VoIP) is not infailable.

Answer 2

My thoughts.  I believe yes they will (except for certain areas).

What I mean is - I work at a MAJOR healthcare provider in the state of Wisconsin and we have 0 payphones.  AT&T wanted over $6.00 a day to keep them in place or charge an exorbitant fee each month.  We decided to replace payphones with a 'courtesy' phone at about $10.00 a month.

But I do know - that they can't all be pulled out.  Certain areas the state and feds will work to keep phone service for the 5% of the population that do not have cell phones.  Meaning - Swimming pools, state and county parks(with no warden on duty) etc.)  But you will not find them at the corner gas station for this same reason.

Answer 3

payphones are disappearing very rapidly, they are not providing enough revenue for it to be worth keeping them...

they are in some areas being replaced by free phones, with something like 3 minute calls that are ad-supported...

landlines will be here for time to come.. VoIP IMO is not ready for business, although I see way too many businesses jumping in on VoIP...

as for the previous answerer... I am a telecom tech, and I have not had a landline for at least 5 years... VoIP is ready for residential, with a cell phone as back up... cell towers are connected to back up generators and you can use a cigerette lighter to charge the cell phone, so there is always a phone in a power outage...