Tales of a pay phone

A decade ago there were 2.6 million pay phones in the United States. Today there are only 1 million. Now, more than a century after the pay phone made its debut, AT&T has announced plans to exit the business by the end of the year, just as BellSouth did in 2001.

Yet pay phones have not outlived their usefulness, particularly for the one quarter of Americans who remain wireless-less, whether by choice or financial necessity. Learn the stories of several pay phone users and why they don't want the lines to go dead.

(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)
A decade ago there were 2.6 million pay phones in the United States. Today there are only 1 million. Now, more than a century after the pay phone made its debut, AT&T has announced plans to exit the business by the end of the year, just as BellSouth did in 2001. Yet pay phones have not outlived their usefulness, particularly for the one quarter of Americans who remain wireless-less, whether by choice or financial necessity. Learn the stories of several pay phone users and why they don't want the lines to go dead.