They sit, silent and unnoticed, amid crowds of people rushing by. You may never notice them, but there are still some 4,600 payphones lurking throughout Georgia, including at least 250 at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport alone.
And every once in a while, they get called into action.
Ron Szulwach, who flew from Texas to Atlanta last month, discovered upon landing that his cellphone service didn't work at Hartsfield-Jackson. "So out of desperation, I'm using a payphone, " he said after dropping the receiver back on its hook. The last time he remembers using a payphone: 2005, in war-torn Iraq, while with the Texas National Guard.
Many are wondering what role payphones should play in today's wireless world. A decade or two after cellphone technology has passed them by, the number of payphones is dwindling.
In 1998, there were more than 2 million payphones in the United States. That has plummeted to 243,000 payphones nationally, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Industry estimates paint a slightly brighter picture of about 400,000 payphones nationally, with 8,000 in Georgia, though those figures also represent a drastic decline.
Some still see a need to keep the anachronistic connection available for the elderly, the poor and others without a working phone.
Even people with cellphones may someday find themselves in a need of a payphone, say industry leaders, who point to disasters like Superstorm Sandy last year when cellphones went dead and people in the Northeast found themselves lining up at payphones to keep in touch with friends and family.
Yet there is scant demand to keep payphones profitable. Many major phone companies have left the payphone business. Verizon last June sold off its last batch of payphones, which dotted the streets of New York City.
"It just wasn't germane to our business strategy, " said Verizon spokesman Bob Elek.
In Georgia, payphones are few and far between. Many of the last holdouts are in places like truck stops, convenience stores and some hotels.
"They are still a pretty critical piece of the infrastructure, especially for the poor in American society, " said Randy Nichols, president of the American Public Communications Council. He said the image of payphones as crime magnets is a "perception issue." Disposable cellphones are the preferred communications device of drug dealers, Nichols said, because payphones can be tapped and convenience stores may have security cameras.
"Any self-respecting criminal knows that, " he said.
Instead of instruments of ill-doing, Nichols sees payphones as "a critical part of the communications infrastructure for the country." He said they can work during natural disasters as long as the local telephone company switch is above water.
More than a decade ago, it wasn't uncommon to see banks of payphones everywhere. But, along with the rise of cellphones, the 1996 Telecommunications Act laid a piece of the groundwork that put a stake through the heart of the payphone business --- the prohibition of "cross-subsidizing" payphones with revenue from regular phone bills, according to Nichols.
"So the payphones had to stand on their own to prevent [the Bells] from being able to frustrate competition by subsidizing the business, " Nichols said. Payphone use declined, and the Bells "ultimately made the decision to abandon the payphone business."
That has left payphones mostly in the hands of small businesses that, in many locations, struggle to cover connection charges of $25 or $30 a month with the paltry quarters and card charges coming in.
Payphones are still an affordable way to make 50 cent local calls. But rates for long distance vary widely, depending on which long distance provider the caller chooses, and high prices can be an unpleasant surprise for infrequent payphone users.
"Our industry has gone to hell in a handbasket, " said James R. Kelly III, whose Atlanta-based firm KELLEE Communications operates payphones at Hartsfield-Jackson and several other airports. His company has removed thousands of its payphones across the country and entirely pulled out of more than 15 airports.
Others are trying ideas to transform the payphone. New York has launched a program to reinvent payphones as Wi-Fi hotspots. Denver International Airport in November launched free landline phones to be supported by ads on LCD screens on each phone.
At Hartsfield-Jackson, more than 1,100 payphones have been pulled out, relegated to warehouses before being junked.
"You cannibalize them for parts and then you toss them. And even after a while, there's more parts than you need, " Kelly said.
With payphone revenue down, the airport and KELLEE Communications were unable to come to an agreement for a new contract.
Some airports have done away with payphones altogether. But at Hartsfield-Jackson, Miller sees a need for them for customer service and plans for the airport to subsidize the cost of installing phones when striking its next contract. He said that's because payphone providers won't spend money to provide the service when they can't make much money doing it.
"People are sitting around in the telephone booths and they're talking on their cellphone, " Miller said. "That's common at airports across the country."
In the payphone business, "The Atlanta airport is one of the last airports to fall, " said Kelly. International flights help, with travelers from abroad seeking to avoid international cellphone charges. Hartsfield-Jackson's international terminal opened last year has no payphones, but Miller plans to add that in a new contract.
Like the airport, the Georgia World Congress Center has also seen a decline in payphones. It has 14 operated by Interstate Telecommunications, down from 78 in 2004. The GWCC plans to "evaluate the situation" before the current payphone contract ends in late 2014.
"Eventually, there will be no payphones, but right now, there's still a need for some, " said Interstate Telecommunications president Frank Zimmerer. But even he doesn't use payphones. "I have a cellphone, " he pointed out. As his payphone business shrinks, he's turning to Internet hotspots as a growth area.
Some who grew up in the cellphone age, like 21-year-old University of Georgia law student Alex Carteret, have never even used a payphone.
"Nobody even thinks about payphones anymore, " he said.
Fellow UGA law student Sven Boesing countered: "Nobody ever thinks about them until you need one. And then you think, damn, why don't we have them anymore?"
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