Are cell phones making pay phone obsolete?

I'm noticing less public pay phones nowadays. Do you think they'll eventually just cease to exist alltogether? It seems like just about everybody carries a cell phone with them now. But I know there are still some old people that refuse the new technology. Still, when it gets to the point where payphones are rarely used, its not going to make much sense to keep them around for the handful of people that might need them.

I don't think I've ever used a payphone. Is that weird? Have most of you used them? I got my cell when I was 16, so I probably just never had a reason to use one. The only people I've ever seen using them are old people and bummy looking people.

Let's group those old people with those their bums why don't we.

Cell Phone did its fair share of the major damage... But phone booth seem a pain to maintain in proper working order when they are out in the open (like at a gas station). They only seem to be found in relatively good working order indoor (like at an airport terminal)....so my guess is that pay phones were a hard to maintain necessary evil and cell phones created the excuse not to have them take such a large chunk of the phone market.

Now if we could only rid the world of old people and bums.

Payphones are always used a lot by tourist as calls abroad from mobile phones are generally expensive, and tourists can buy pre-paid call cards. I can't see them ever being obselete due to the sheer convenience.

I agree with you here. I can't see them being obselete either. I mean look at airports. Alot of travellers have cell phones but there are always a tonne at any given section of an airport.

Well it is true that not everyone has a cell phone. They're still popular around bus stops and the like, where it's most likely that anyone without a cell phone will call.

Besides, phones can run out of batteries, or break, or have a million things happen to them.

I don't think they are. Like people have said lots of people don't have phones and lot's of people don't want them either. When they need to make a quick call and they've got some spare change - Pay Phones must be god for them

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I dont think they'll be obsolete.. but they definitely wont be as prevalent as they used to be. the numbers will just go down, but they will always exist in one form or another.

There will come a time that payphones will really become obsolete, anyway this is just a personal point of view. As time passes cellphones will take over the communication world. I mean cellphones is becoming a necessity and its very affordable now.

I would agree that payphones are not used quite as much as I used to see them used, but I still see them used on a daily basis and people would be in trouble without them.