Who remembers stores like Tandy, Blockbuster and the many old VHS rental stores that were at one point thriving. Just like those stores are now all but a distant memory, Payphones are lose to suffering the same fate. When is the last time you used a Payphone?
Still in use: A red phonebox in London, UK
I'm sure you're aware that I'm not just talking about the older red telephone boxes / booths, but all payphones in general. Almost everyone now owns a mobile phone, whether that be a basic mobile phone like what I use, or a Smartphone.
Add to that, that a big majority of people have phone plans (contracts) which include hundreds of free texts and hundreds of hours of free calls each month, and factor in all the pay as you go people like me who would rather just top up their phone than put money in a phone box, and it's clear to see why there is such a massive decline in the amount of people using telephone boxes.
Of course, some people do still use payphones, so I doubt they will be completely removed from public service any time soon. Emergency situations, convenience if out of credit, people who don't own a mobile phone (Yes they do exist, even in the UK) or those who have expensive cellphone tariffs where its actually cheaper to phone certain numbers from a landline rather than a mobile.
The sad reality: A Phone Booth Graveyard
Why am I writing about this obsolete subject that most of the world has moved on from. I'll tell you why. I had a strange dream that I was in a phonebox. I looked down at the part that holds the money, and the front of the box had been removed, as if someone have tried to steal the contents but either couldn't do it or got disturbed and would come back later and try again.
The inner box that contained the money was still intact and firmly in place. In my dream I managed to pull the money box out of its enclosure and hide in down by my side. In my dream I really wanted this money, and going on the weight of the money box, there was a considerable amount of coins in there.
A woman came to the phonebox and wanted to use it. This made me nervous, so I hid the money box in my jacket and pretended to be talking to someone on the phone. All the time while I was doing this I was thinking of how I could leave the situation with the money box without her asking me, or me telling her that the phone was out of order.
And if I did tell her the phone was broken, would she become suspicious because I was supposedly talking to someone on it just a minute ago. Would she then think it was me who broke the phone and robbed the money. And also, would she report me to the police. This sounds crazy, but that's what I was thinking in the dream. You know how mad and vivid dreams can be. Feelings and emotions seems so real sometimes.
Anyway, that dream made me think about phone booths and how much money they actually take in each month. I could be wrong, but I'd imagine these days British Telecom (BT) are not even earning enough change to cover the persons wages who goes around in the van collecting the money. Yeah, in my dream the money box was heavy, full of coins. I was definitely dreaming then!
