Death Of The Pay Phone

AT&T is getting out of the public pay phone business. Not surprisingly, the spread of cell phones and the ridiculously cheap rates the come with them has rendered the concept of paying $0.50 for ten minutes of talk time obsolete and expensive.

I saw this in a way earlier this year. As the last season of The Sopranos was winding down I had purchased the first season on DVD. I was watching both around the same time. One thing the jumped out at me was in the first season the characters would go to a remote pay phone to conduct their illicit business. In the final season they were on cell phones (presumedly throw aways) all the time.