>> Telephone calls from a call box were a dime. Now there are .35.
>
>My theory is this...
>
>Because so many people have cell phones, pay phones are not used that much any more. The only way to make the pay phone pay for itself (and turn a profit) is to raise the rate to use the phone. Most pay phones are not owned by the phone company.

Steve;

In California pay phones (and everything else) is a mixed bag. Here is one that occured two weeks ago. I was at Stanford Shopping Center (leased by Stanford University to businesses) with our daughter and wanted to make a call from a pay phone (PacBell). I went to the coin operated phone, lifted the receiver and received the following message: "This phone does not accept coins. Use your PacBell calling card"! What the H--- is a coin phone for?

Tom