Are Pay Phones Making a Comeback?

You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess what, kid?

What's that Mango?

Did you know that one of the first things to go viral on the Internet was a payphone in the Mojave Desert?

Okay, so was this before or after that a flying toaster screensaver that everybody was going nuts over.

That is so long ago. This was after the toasters, but before the Hamster Dance.

I got it, I got my bearings now, So what was so special about this payphone?

Nothing? Really, It was just random and this super isolated payphone that was in the middle of the Mojave National Preserve. But for this brief moment in nineteen ninety sive and it completely captivated the online community, and thousands of people started trekking out to the desert just to see this payphone and of course to call up their friends from the middle of nowhere, which I just love so much.

Okay, so this guy sparked an online craze about a payphone after reading about it in a zine that might be the most nineties thing I've ever heard.

I know. But Daniels got obsessed with the idea of this payphone in the middle of a desert and all the mysterious people who might be using it. So, you know, he wanted to satisfy that curiosity, so he started calling the phone over and over, using the number he'd gotten from that zine article, and he later told reporters quote, I was just imagining making a phone ring out where

Who would be out there?

Who would pick up? Right? So Daniels calls this booth every day for a solid month without ever getting an answer, But then at last he gets this busy signal, so someone's actually using the phone. So he waited a whole minute, calls back, and to his delight, somebody finally answers and her name was Loreene. She was a local cinder miner who lived off grid and used the phone booth to make her calls.

It is so random, but a case closed, right, I mean, he figured it out who the clientele was for such a remote phone booth. Time to move on, learn the macarena or you know whatever else we were all doing that.

They were doing in the nineties. Well not quite so.

After making his own pilgrimage to visit the phone in person, Daniels made a website, presumably with like geo cities because again this is the nineties, right, and he published the phone number and address so anyone in the world could enjoy his strange discovery. And like I said, people started coming in droves to make and receive calls from this

That is a shame for the Taurus, but it feels like Loreen is the one who really lost out here, like she actually.

Needed that, you know, she actually needed it. But this is right around the time that like cell phones start to take off, so I'm sure she had options. But for anyone else who's still mourning the loss of the Mahave phone booth, there is a silver lining to the story. About a decade ago, someone revived the phone booth, at least, you know, in spirit, by reinstating the original number, which is seven six 's oh seven three three nine nine

I am definitely going to call that, And you know, it really does hit on one of the peculiar appeals of payphones, which is kind of the romance and excitement of the anonymity. Right Like you get a call from a payphone, or you walk past one that's ringing, there's no caller ID to tell you who's on the other end.

You just have to pick it up and find out. Yeah, there's definitely a thrill. You don't get as much in this age of smartphones where everyone screens their calls to avoid spam. So today on the show, we're taking a trip back to the golden age of payphones. We'll look at how they became this integral part of society, why they went away, and most importantly, what some folks are doing to bring them back.

Let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners.

Well, in a part time genius, I'm Mungi's articular and today I'm joined by my old pal Gabe Luzia and on the other side of that soundproof glass rocking a vintage one eight hundred collect hoodie I didn't even know there was available. That's our friend and producer Dylan Fagan.

That's where you like reverse the charges, right, so that the person you're calling pays for the call.

Yeah, you would call collect and then you'd have to say your name real quick so the person can decide whether or not they want to pay to talk to you.

Yeah. I don't think I officially called collect, right, but I definitely did the trick where you shout a message in the space where you're supposed to say your name, like Mom, I'm at the mall, come pick me up?

But what about you?

Like any memorable experiences with payphones growing up?

My dad lived very close to my high school, so when I needed a ride that he would come pick me up. It was fairly easy to communicate with him. But I remember after like soccer practice or tennis practice, kids would always use that trick to like get a message across to their parents that they were staying later or whatever.

No one had a quarter or you want to use them for like like machines. Of course, Yeah, I'm not gonna lays to call on my mom.

Wait, so can I tell you how excited I am to have Nord VPN sponsoring our little show, part time Genius. You know, when I get excited, I make lists, and I'm going to tell you why Nord is so great in listical form. First off, VPNs make the Internet a safer, cozier place. VPN stand for virtual Private network. Basically, they hide your IP address and protect your online identity and data, which is especially good for people like me who use

It is magic. And three one.

NordVPN subscription can be used on up to ten devices, which is incredible. I mean, I don't want to do the math for you, but whether you use ten cell phones or you have like nine desktop computers and one laptop or six iPads, three phones and one personal computer, there are a lot of ways to stretch this deal. I mean, I'm joking, but also I have like a million devices, so the idea of spreading this across ten devices is pretty amazing. It is premium cybersecurity for the

But but like, where do you want to start with this?

Well, I mean, if we're going to trace you know, the rise and fall of payphones, we should probably start at the beginning, right, So in this case, that would be eighteen eighty eight, just over a decade after the invention of the telephone. At the time, owning your own phone was an expensive prospect, as not only did you have to buy the actual device, you also had to pay for a monthly phone subscription.

Sure, because back then every call had to be manually connected by like a switchboard operator, right.

Right, And this was like a small pool of people using this service. And you know, the phone companies had to pay those switchboard operators somehow, so monthly service. But the high cost of a telephone meant the new technology was beyond the reach of most Americans. And that includes a man named William Gray. Now he was the son of Scottish immigrants, and he lived in Hartford, Connecticut, where he worked as a machinery polisher at a local armory.

Yeah, kind of a jack of all trades.

It was all over the map. But you know, in eighteen eighty eight, he was not a wealthy man and certainly couldn't afford his own phone. And this became a problem for Gray when his wife fell ill one day and he had no way to call for a doctor. So, as the story goes, the desperate husband ran from one local business to another asking to use their phone, but all of them flat out refused.

That is really horrible. I'm confused, though, Like, was he one of the most hated men in town? Like, why was no one letting him use it?

Well, as you know, people in Connecticut are notorious for their prejudice against machinery polishers, So yeah, I think no. But thankfully Gray did eventually find a phone to use, and his wife made a full recovery. But you know, the ordeal had underscored the need for him, you know, for some kind of public telephone, one that people could

That is incredible And I really love that origin story, right, that desire to solve this public problem. But I assume that you know, you're talking about these two million phone boots, that these are unenclosed, right, they're like outside, not not in the like phone boots we think of today.

Well, you know, the two million number was both of those, right, So the ones that are just kind of hanging out there on the side of the wall and the ones that were enclosed in booths. But for the first decade or so, you know, payphones were either mounted to poles or hung on walls in their own little cabinets, and they were always installed indoors to protect them from the elements.

That is so funny to think about privacy that way, the idea that Americans are hesitant to make phone calls in public. This week, I was on a bus and people were using a speaker phone for us to hear both sides of the conversation, and.

Crazy you hear that everywhere.

I mean, it really is funny. I remember thinking it's so weird when that sort of became more and more the norm, when people were talking on funds outside. But what are your thoughts about that?

Yeah, I mean, whatever scruples we used to have about private conversations in public, that is like right out the window. The line between public and private life is you know, a lot more blurred than it used to be, and in a weird way, phone booths are where that gradual blurring first started. Phone booths were a kind of transitional space between public and private life. They weren't wholly one

I was thinking about this recently because Henry mentioned he loved the new Superman movie, and like, how strange it is that Clark Kent would run into a phone booth where you need to change into Superman, like like, you know, everyone can still see him, right.

But to be fair, this is the guy whose secret identity hinges solely on a pair of glasses, So I don't think that discretion is really his strong suit.

Well, regardless, I do see what you're saying about this idea of phone boots being this bizarre in between of like public and private spaces. I almost think like the closest thing we have to that now is sitting in a parked car, right, Like that's kind of an idea of like being inside and outside.

But I'm curious.

Were phone boots always made of glass or was that something that came along later so people wouldn't get too comfortable in there? Yeah?

Right, So the earliest phone boots were mostly made of wood, so the only side you could see into was the one with that French folding door that you've probably seen, and the one with the two long panes of glass on it that was included so people could tell whether the phone was in use or not. And wooden phone boots looked super classy and you know, afforded users with a high level of privacy, but they were also expensive to maintain against the constant exposure to sun and rain.

It's kind of wild when you look at that timeline, because you had that big phone booth boom in the nineteen fifties and sixties, But then in the early seventies, the seeds of the payphone's downfall were already being planted. The world's first cell phone call and I had to look this up, but it was made in nineteen seventy three, and the first American cell phone network launches just a

Let's not write the eulogy just yet, Okay, Like, after we take a quick break, we'll find out how cell phones muscled out the phone booth, and we'll also talk about some places where payphones still reign supreme.

So don't go away, Welcome back to part time Genius.

In just a second, I'm going to tell you about the rapid decline of payphones in the twenty first century. But first I want to ask you a favor. We've got an episode in the works all about milk, and we want to know your favorite way to drink it.

Do you go for a.

Skim, low fat or whole milk? Do you ever drink a full glass of it? And if you prefer your mood juice without the mood, what's your non dairy milk of choice? Soy, oat, pistachio, almond? You tell us, So give us a call on the PTG hotline, leave us a voicemail, and we might include your answer in the episode. The number is three oh two, four oh five, five nine two five. We cannot wait to hear from you because we've actually like been debating this internally, right.

Oh wow, right, Like, who is out there drinking a full glass of milk.

We have to know every night. Yeah, we've heard rumors so that people are doing this, so like we definitely want Yeah.

And in case you're worried, the call is completely free unless you dial in from a payphone. But I mean, you know, good luck find in one of those.

So yeah.

So actually, on that topic, let's talk about how phone boots are really hard to find these days. We mentioned that there were more than two million payphones in the US at their peak in the late nineteen nineties, and that was because even though cell phone usage was on the rise, the devices and service plans were still extremely expensive, just like in the early days of landlines, and that meant that payphones were still the cheapest way to make

My gosh, that is like shockingly steep in such a short amount of time. Was this across the board, though, because I'd imagine some states you might have more of a need for payphones than others.

Yeah, so there were definitely some holdouts.

New York was one of the examples. In twenty sixteen, the state account for one five of the country's remaining payphones. Most of them, of course, were located in New York City, where you know, you used to be able to find one on almost every block. Since then, most of the city's former phone booths have been converted into Link NYC kiosks, which offer free domestic phone calls public Wi Fi device charging. You've seen them, probably like nearbus stops in New York.

Have you ever used one of those?

I'm just curious. I haven't, but I've seen people use them, and I've seen people charge the phones at them. Yeah, it seems pretty handy for that, especially in that era. Before and now the buses actually have like a phone charging but before that.

So even the kiosks are becoming outdated now.

Yeah, yeah.

Aside from New York, though, the bigger outlier is Hawaii, which I wouldn't have expected. The number of payphones in the island state had only dropped by about sixty percent in twenty sixteen, so about a third slower than the

And so what about today, like how many payphones are still left in Hawaii or you know, in the US in general.

That's actually the crazy part. Payphones have become such a rarity that the FCC stopped requiring audits of them in twenty eighteen. It just wasn't worth the money to count them anymore. So, like the last tally found fewer than one hundred thousand of them left in the US. But you know, since no one's really keeping track, there's a strong chance the number is way lower than that.

Obviously, that's a far cry from two million, but it's still a lot of payphones, right, given how infrequently you come across one.

You know.

That said, though, there is one place I know of in the US where you're still bound to find at least a few of them in active use, and that's inside the National Radio Quiet Zone. So if you've never heard of this, it's a thirteen thousand square mile area located between Green Bank and sugar Grove, West Virginia, and within that zone, wireless signals are completely illegal. So no smartphones, no Wi Fi, no microwaves, no nothing.

You know, I was thinking like maybe there's something like comming about that, but I also think like my kids, I would think it's their worst nightmare, right, there's nothing worse than no, And then for plenty.

Of adults too, absolutely, But yeah, federal officials established this quiet zone back in nineteen fifty eight as a way to protect a pair of government radio telescopes from man made interference. So the astronomers station there, they use this equipment to listen to radio energy that's traveled light years

I love this idea of this like kind of protected zone, and I also love the idea of like them accidentally hearing some sort of like a zoom morning.

Crews into a star being born in a different galaxy, and then it's just somebody you know, asking to pick up milk on the way home or whatever.

So how strictly enforced is all this because I, you know, I can't imagine everyone who lives there is happy with their radio. Yeah.

No, There's been a lot of pushback in recent years, especially from first responders, because like they're only allowed to communicate by short distance CB radios, which you know, makes the job a lot harder. And while local officials don't have much power to enforce these measures, that's actually the job of the FCC. The National Science Foundation does have people who patrol the area listening for rogue radio signals.

That is so strange to think about it. It's like almost like living in some kind of minimum security tech jail.

The guards just like politely ask you not to use the microwave. But you know, actually speaking of jail, the prison system is another place where payphones are still a big deal. Studies show the communication between inmates and their loved ones that helps to improve their mental health, health increases the odds of successfully rejoining society, and payphones are oftentimes the easiest way to maintain those connections with the

That's really really unfortunate, Like, and it feels hard that these people are already paying their debt to society in now like to have to have a cost for communications. Yeah, it's crazy because it feels like it doesn't take much to make a payphone sustainable, right, Like I found this twenty sixteen interview. It was with the head of a telecommunication firm, and he said that for a payphone to be profitable, you just need people to make three fifty cent calls per day.

That's it.

Yeah, But since most remaining payphones are now owned by private operators, they can basically charge whatever they want because they know that people still using these phones don't really have other options.

It's kind of shocking to hear that, like all the major providers pulled up stakes in the payphone business when the bar was low as a dollar fifty a day. But I guess there were a ton of payphones out there that weren't even meeting that three call threshold.

Yeah, I mean it kind of makes sense for payphones to persist in like rural areas and prisons and places where mobile phones are unreliable or also not allowed. But in most parts of the country and the rest of the developed world, the average person just wouldn't have much need for a payphone except in sort of a dire emergency.

Right, Yeah, and nine to one one calls are free from payphones, so you know those aren't going to keep the industry afloat anyway.

That's a really good point.

So what do you think this all means for the future though, Like our payphones, you know, destined for the scrap heap once the last few hangars on kind of let go.

You know, if you had asked me that a week ago, I would have said, yes, absolutely. Like my friend Winslow, who's the designer for Mental Floss, had a phone booth in one of his early apartments.

You just like decorated.

But uh, you know, I actually think they're kind of making a comeback, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about that right after the break. Welcome back to part Tien genius. Now before the break, I tease that some groups out there are currently working to resurrect the payphone And while it might be tempting to call this project futile, the correct term is actually futel.

I don't get it is that the French pronunciation.

No futel, as in futile telephone or pointless telephone. That's the name of a nonprofit group. It's based in Portland, Oregon that's been updating decommissioned payphones to provide free calls and voicemail. The service is meant to help impoverished and unhoused members of the community, as well as people who just don't want to carry a cell phone.

Everywhere they go.

At the time of recording, Futel had fifteen outdoor payphone style phones in Portland, plus four more in Washington State and another two in Michigan. And this is actually how the group's founders sum up their mission quote. We believe in the preservation of public telephone hardware as a means of providing access to the public square for everybody. We are primarily driven by the basic needs that we see

Huh so payphones that don't require payment? Is there a name for that, payless phones?

I guess free payphones, but you know that's kind of an oxymoron, free and payphone.

Well, I mean, whatever you call them, I like it. It's been crazy talking about payphones getting more expensive in the age of smartphones, you know, like you'd imagine that as demand lessened, this is a service that would get cheaper, But no, it's been the opposite. So this is a nice change of pace. I'm curious, though, do you know, are there any other cities that have kind of followed Portland's example? Is this catching on?

Yeah, there's actually a similar program in Philadelphia, inspired by futel. It's actually called phil Tel Philadelphia Telephone, I imagine, and its goal is to create a network of phones all across the city that could make free calls anywhere in North America. And the cool thing is that they are just revitalizing these existing payphone locations that are also installing refurbished phones and places that never had one before.

And they work just like old payphones, except you know, without the whole pay part.

They functioned the same, but the hardware is more modern. The collective's co founders their name Mark Dank and Navien Albert. They developed a way to replace the coin system with a payment free circuit board and router. So when someone makes a call, the analog phone uses voiceover Internet Protocol or VoIP, which connects a call using an Internet connection.

That is super clever. And I've got to ask, though, who pays for all this, like, not just the calls, but you know, the phones, the installations, keeping the servers running. That can't be cheap.

So that's actually the amazing part. All of Filltel's employees are volunteers and the work they do is completely funded by public donations.

So this is how.

Mark Dank put it quote, you could think of this as half art project, half community service project. We like tinkering with these phones. We like the idea of providing interesting experiences and having people play with them. But at the same time, there are people out there who can

It's nice to see projects like that, because you mostly hear about old phone boots being converted into tiny libraries or art galleries, and you know, don't get me wrong, those are awesome ways to repurpose those spaces. But the whole point of payphones was to facilitate conversations for people on the go, So it's cool that people are finding

That is really really beautiful. It reminds me of like forest bathing too, which is also a Japanese concept. I feel like there's something about being in nature and communicating that's really interesting. So like, how did this come about?

Well, yeah, so the.

First wind phone was created in Japan back in twenty ten by a garden designer named Itaru Sasaki. He moved an old phone booth into his yard so he could talk to his late cousin and let his thoughts, as he put it quote be carried on the wind. But then you know, the following year, the Fukushim earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in quick succession, killing more than twenty

I really really love that, like It kind of speaks to the power of placemaking, right, Like a lot of people wouldn't sit in their living room to talk to a deceased loved one. You know, you can get self conscious or like like, you know, it feels weird to do that with an iPhone and play act. But if you carve out the space that's designated for that type of connection, suddenly people become so much more open to the idea. I really think there's something special about it.

Yeah, no, me too. And it kind of goes back to you know, when the payphone wasn't just a means of communication, it was part of the landscape. And I think the fact the phones are kind of archaic also plays a part in this. You know, we all know there's there's nothing magical about a smartphone, right but an old timey rotary phone where you have to pull that dial, or a payphone with those big clicky steel buttons like those aren't devices that were used to interacting with anymore.

Well, I mean, being old, I know that what's happening is that you hear an annoying dial tone. If you didn't deposit any money or recording would tell you to hang off the phone.

Okay, all right, yeah, okay, so nothing too magical about that either. But you know, everything looks more charming when viewed through those rose tinted glasses and nostalgia and even something as mundane as payphones.

So you know, if you're not ready to hang it up just yet, I've got another quarter here that should buys a few more minutes, and I think there's no better way to spend that time than with the fact off. Let's do it.

Okay, I'll get us started with my favorite piece of payphone psychology, which is that callers tend to take longer if they know someone is waiting to use the phone. So we've all e to this, but according to a nineteen eighty nine study conducted by Professor Barry Rubach, it is true another person's presence really does make a caller linger.

And you know.

Professor Rubac also pointed out that in some cases the person waiting might be distracting to the caller, causing them to, you know, need more time to get their words out. So as unlikely as it is these days, if you ever find yourself waiting for a payphone, your best bet is to give the caller some space and try to look nonchalant.

So we talked about a few ways that people have been vitalizing phone boots on the streets and nature, But another place where they found a new life is in the modern office. So soundproof privacy pods styled after phone boots have become super popular as a solution to the problems of open office floor plans. They provide individuals or small teams with a quiet place to focus conduct meetings

Wow, I feel like come on back to the office so we can stick you in a phone booth. Might not be as enticing as managers think, but well, my next fact is about a public servant who spent so much time in a phone booth that he's now immortalized inside one at the Honolulu International Airport. World War II veteran Daniel K and Noeh became one of Hawaii's first representatives in Congress when he was elected to the Senate

That's really sweet, Ashly. My last fact is another fitting tribute to an avid phone user, mister Alexander Graham Bell. When the inventor of the telephone passed away in nineteen twenty two, every phone in the US and Canada, including payphones, fell silent for a full minute. It was a show of respect from all the telephone exchanges, and the moment of silence coincided with the start of his funeral, And

Not hello. Well, a hooy to Alexander Graham Bell, and congratulations to you, Mango for bringing us around to the man who started it all. I think you've earned today's trophy.

I think it's the perfect place to keep all of my spare quarters, so thank you so much. If anyone listening has a payphone related story to share, we'd love to hear about it. Give us a call at three oh two, four oh five, five nine two five. We're also waiting for those answers about milk, so send those as well. You can send us an email at high Geniuses at gmail dot com. Two that is spelled Hi Geniuses at gmail dot com. You can also find us

That is insane.

I'm the autoco host, Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer. I'm going to fix that in post. Our writer is Gabe Lucier, who I've also known for like a decade at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth. He is always dressed up, always cheering us on, and always ready to hit record and then mix the show after he does a great job. I also want to shout out the executive producers from iHeart my good pals Katrina and