Ever had to use the few public phone boxes left?

JupiterKid · 10-09-2019 6:51pm #1

Given that over the past 25 years or so mobile telephones have become not only commonplace but pretty much universal, does anyone find it a surprise that a few phone boxes are still about?

I reckon that about 85 to 90 per cent of phone boxes have been removed over the past 20 or so years, as mobile phones have become the norm for nearly everyone, but you do still see the very odd pay phone in city and town centres and at airports, train stations, hospitals and shopping centres.

Some mobile phone boxes have been converted into sites for emergency defibrillators, like one I saw in Killarney last January.

I remember - as an old fart - the days of using phone boxes in the days before mobile phone usage was widespread (most of the 1990s), when if you arranged to meet friends in a certain place at a certain time, you just went there and waited and didn’t chop and change your plans.

Back in the 70s the telephone infrastructure in Ireland was so rubbish and so unable to keep up with population growth and development, with most households waiting years to obtain a land line connection - any many not having a telephone at all - that phone boxes were an essential piece of communications infrastructure, especially in new suburban housing estates, that there were queues of people outside each phone box most evenings waiting to use the phone!! If you look at archived govt Dail debates at the time, the state of the phone system features in a big way...

So would you ever have a reason to use a telephone kiosk these days? In an emetgency and/or when your mobile battery died? Do you see any benefit in keeping the few that are still around?

Badly Drunk Boy · 10-09-2019 7:03pm

It'd be grand to have the odd one still around, but they'd have to be in 'known' areas, like near the entrance of a shopping centre (outside or inside) or the post office or the main bank in a smaller town, for example.

If you were stuck, you'd have an idea of where to find one. I know people will say "Why not just ask a passerby to use theirs?" but not everybody is as trusting as they were, these days. Back in the days before mobile phones, people wouldn't have minded giving you a loan of their mobile...

Doctors room ghost · 10-09-2019 7:05pm

I put the dog in one there one day outside a shop while I ran into the shop for a minute.
It stank of piss.
Poor dog wasn’t right for the evening after it

pappyodaniel · 10-09-2019 7:07pm

They come in handy when there's no public toilets in the area.

Paddy Cow · 10-09-2019 7:17pm

I used to collect call cards as a teenager. My self and my friend would go for a walk after school and check all the boxes. Haven't seen a phone box in years.

Peatys · 10-09-2019 7:20pm

Had me first ware in a phone box in Rooskey with the girl who worked in the chipper up the hill.. about 1994ish..

Purple Mountain · 10-09-2019 7:20pm

My phone wouldn't register back to an Irish network when I landed in Dublin Airport once.
I was panicked thinking I wouldn't get a public phone but there's one in the car park building outside the little coffee kiosk.

DavyD_83 · 10-09-2019 7:29pm

I tried to use one a couple of years back and honestly couldn't figure it out

corner of hells · 10-09-2019 7:31pm

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

I put the dog in one there one day outside a shop while I ran into the shop for a minute.
It stank of piss.
Poor dog wasn’t right for the evening after it

What stank of piss ? The shop or the dog?

Doctors room ghost · 10-09-2019 8:05pm

corner of hells wrote: »

What stank of piss ? The shop or the dog?

The bastad phone box.dog had a faraway look in her eyes for the evening like someone back home from war.
Never again I had to promise her

Sir Osis of Liver. · 10-09-2019 8:05pm

If I ever develop a fetish for earwax,spittle and piss I'll head straight to the nearest P&T box,lad in hand and have the time of me life.

Until then I'll pass,thanks.

Stheno · 10-09-2019 8:16pm

There was a public service obligation Eir had to provide a certain amount of public phone boxes

Think they now report on usage volumes and agree to decommission based on low usage.

Gregor Samsa · 10-09-2019 9:13pm

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

I put the dog in one there one day outside a shop while I ran into the shop for a minute.
It stank of piss.
Poor dog wasn’t right for the evening after it

Great, now my toilet smells of dog. Thanks for that.

Redneck Reject · 10-09-2019 9:23pm

There is one near the tobacconist I go to. Was going to use it one day but there was a green piece of pizza stuck to the receiver. So I gave it a miss.

Reppohc · 10-09-2019 9:26pm

Used to have to queue for half an hour to get a phone on a Friday evening. It seems like about five years ago but I got my mobile in 98.

Redneck Reject · 10-09-2019 9:30pm

Reppohc wrote: »

Used to have to queue for half an hour to get a phone on a Friday evening. It seems like about five years ago but I got my mobile in 98.

Got my first mobile phone here in 97 or 98.Was with Digifone at the time and was half a brick with an antennae for better reception,heh.

Paddy Cow · 10-09-2019 11:38pm

Redneck Reject wrote: »

Got my first mobile phone here in 97 or 98.Was with Digifone at the time and was half a brick with an antennae for better reception,heh.

I got my first mobile in 99 and I remember calls and texts were very expensive. That's what lead to text speak - people cutting down on letters so they didn't go over the character limit and end up sending too texts. I was also only able to store six message at a time, between both my inbox and send messages.

Oops! · 13-09-2019 1:12am

Last one i've seen was in Letterkenny town a few months ago, was just driving past it. No idea if it's still in operation though.

Charles Babbage · 13-09-2019 1:20am

DavyD_83 wrote: »

I tried to use one a couple of years back and honestly couldn't figure it out

You put in 10p, and when the person answers press button A.

JupiterKid · 13-09-2019 1:23am

Paddy Cow wrote: »

I got my first mobile in 99 and I remember calls and texts were very expensive. That's what lead to text speak - people cutting down on letters so they didn't go over the character limit and end up sending too texts. I was also only able to store six message at a time, between both my inbox and send messages.

Got my first mobile in 1999 too. Snap!

A Nokia 3210 if I remember. As robust as f*ck...you could put it through some amount of punishment, and in my partying days I did indeed...and it still worked.

Oops! · 13-09-2019 1:36am

Same here, a 3210 in 99, it survived many a fall out of the overalls top pocket....

simongurnick · 13-09-2019 1:40am

Never went on a night out without a few 20 pences to ring around after clubs for house parties and pharmaceutical deliveries. Also got.a bj in one once. Fond memories for me!

Sam Quentin · 13-09-2019 2:00am

No..But I had to use the few public phone boxes right.
Fill in the blank with YES or NO.

____ I DON'T UNDERSTAND ENGLISH.
Sorry the op question is annoying me :pac: :pac: :pac:

cj maxx · 13-09-2019 2:21am

Is there any left,?

Oops! · 13-09-2019 2:26am

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/just-468-public-payphones-left-in-republic-as-demand-continues-to-drop-1.3956436

Sam Quentin · 13-09-2019 2:44am

They are easily traceable..so for eg: if you are a serial killer and u are giving clues about Ur next victim to your favourite cop in the cop shop,.and he says something like::"so Sam how is ur day going isn't that some rain we're getting" etc etc.. don't engage in the small talk,just give the clue about ur next victim/murder hang up straight away and skidaddle as fast as u can down the nearest alley,or before u know it there will be 3 Garda cars surrounding u in the phone box and you will be caught. :eek:

seamus · 13-09-2019 9:15am

Even before I got a mobile, it would be incredibly rare I'd use a public phone. Usually when away on a school trip out foreign, to ring home to the Mammy.

In the 90s phone boxes seemed to be used only by those poor bastards who lived in houses where the parents were old-fashioned and stingy and either didn't have a phone or had a guard over it so you could only ring 999.

But then going drinking coincided with mobile phones for me, so I never really got to experience the joy of trying to organise a night out without them.

nkl12xtw5goz70 · 13-09-2019 9:53am

Apparently the remaining pay phones are often used to access homeless services. So that's one reason for keeping them.

NIMAN · 13-09-2019 9:55am

Rey Faithful Smoke wrote: »

Apparently the remaining pay phones are often used to access homeless services. So that's one reason for keeping them.

My local one houses the defibrillator.
Great idea imho.

Have a vital piece of equipment close at hand, and keep the old piece of history in the town centre.

Hector Savage · 13-09-2019 9:57am

Anyone remember the old telecom eireann phone cards you could buy with credit ?
You would place them in a slot in the phonebox, I guess the idea was to get rid of coins in the boxes so they weren't battered for the money ...
£5, £10,£20,£50 denominations were available - apparently on older ones if you froze them the credit wouldn't run out ...

nkl12xtw5goz70 · 13-09-2019 10:07am

NIMAN wrote: »

My local one houses the defibrillator.
Great idea imho.

Have a vital piece of equipment close at hand, and keep the old piece of history in the town centre.

Should be possible to house a defibrillator, phone, wifi hotspot, and probably other stuff within a phone box. I like the old phone boxes and it's sad to see them disappearing.

Ever had to use the few public phone boxes left?

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