On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:39:13 -0500, Mike Ash <m...@mikeash.com> wrote: > Now now, let's remember which came first. People started carrying phones > with them everywhere *by choice*, and the pay phones disappeared later. > It would be more properly phrased as, payphones were everywhere, because > people *couldn't* carry telephones around with them wherever they went.
It's chicken AND egg. Some people got cell phones, fewer coins were dropped into pay phones, a few marginal phone booths were removed, the few people who had been using those booths had to get cell phones -- and didn't use any other booths either, so a few more booths didn't pay their way, eventually there came a tipping point and I'm looking for a cell phone that I can throw into an emergency kit and forget for ten years, because I know the next time I get stuck out in the country, knocking on the first door I come to and asking to use the phone won't get me anywhere except maybe arrested.
> On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:39:13 -0500, Mike Ash <m...@mikeash.com> wrote:
> > Now now, let's remember which came first. People started carrying phones > > with them everywhere *by choice*, and the pay phones disappeared later. > > It would be more properly phrased as, payphones were everywhere, because > > people *couldn't* carry telephones around with them wherever they went.
> It's chicken AND egg. Some people got cell phones, fewer coins were > dropped into pay phones, a few marginal phone booths were removed, the > few people who had been using those booths had to get cell phones -- > and didn't use any other booths either, so a few more booths didn't > pay their way, eventually there came a tipping point and I'm looking > for a cell phone that I can throw into an emergency kit and forget for > ten years, because I know the next time I get stuck out in the > country, knocking on the first door I come to and asking to use the > phone won't get me anywhere except maybe arrested.
I never encountered anyone who got a cell phone because pay phones were hard to find. I don't doubt that such people *exist*, but they did not drive the massive adoption of cell technology over the past 20 years or so.
-- Mike Ash Radio Free Earth Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon
In article <mike-1C4B97.19173407112...@news.eternal-september.org>, Mike Ash <m...@mikeash.com> writes:
>In article <gd4cf5dr0iclgud8hbcrmp5kmc2oepm...@4ax.com>, Joy Beeson <jbee...@invalid.net.invalid> wrote: >> On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:39:13 -0500, Mike Ash <m...@mikeash.com> wrote: >> > Now now, let's remember which came first. People started carrying phones >> > with them everywhere *by choice*, and the pay phones disappeared later. >> It's chicken AND egg. Some people got cell phones, fewer coins were >> dropped into pay phones, a few marginal phone booths were removed, the >> few people who had been using those booths had to get cell phones -- >I never encountered anyone who got a cell phone because pay phones were >hard to find.
During the decade prior to my getting a cell phone, I used a pay phone exactly twice -- both times from the MSP airport to call my son's mother and let them know that I was back in the US and ready to pick him up for the weekend. The second of those times, the MAC (Metropolitan Airport Commission) had blocked access to my long-distance carrier (and presumably other carriers, as well).
-- Michael F. Stemper #include <Standard_Disclaimer> "Writing about jazz is like dancing about architecture" - Thelonious Monk
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