AT&T; has announced that it plans to be out of the pay-phone business by the end of 2008.
The move affects AT&T;’s former SBC 13-state territory. Bell South, which was acquired by AT&T; in 2006, had already gotten out of the pay-phone business.
It is a sign of the growing ubiquity of mobile wireless. From about 2.6 million phones in 1998, pay-phones in the United States have declined to about 1 million phones today. A C-Net news story suggests that some phone booths generate more money in advertising than phone calls.
Over the weekend, I had a discussion asking when we will see substantial reductions in basic residential wireline phones.