# How many phone booths are left in the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901 "2003-06-14T21:13:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/1 "2003-06-14T21:13:19Z")
Does anybody keep track of this? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/2 "2003-06-14T22:58:41Z")
Last year, there were apparently still [1.9 million left](http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/2003/04/17/living/5648258.htm) but they’re disappearing fast. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/3 "2003-06-14T23:15:55Z")
and that’s only 1.9 million plain pay phones, if i understood the article correctly ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/4 "2003-06-14T23:22:31Z")
Yup, there’d be less. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/5 "2003-06-14T23:24:35Z")
Last week I was in a motel/conference center place and wanted a pay phone. Found the phone place and there were nothing but empty holes in the wall! The manager said so many people have cell phones that the pay phones had turned into a money loser and they had them removed. I had to borrow a friend’s cell phone to make my call. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/6 "2003-06-14T23:36:50Z")
So, what in the hell is Superman supposed to do now? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/7 "2003-06-14T23:44:21Z")
Betcha super-speed comes in _real_ handy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/8 "2003-06-15T13:57:01Z")
I wonder how long it will be before the term “phone booth” produces only puzzled looks from children. Sort of like “record album” does now. ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/9 "2003-06-15T14:21:03Z")
thats odd, there seems to be more phone boths around here. i had no idea they were disapparing. ---
**Author:** ![radar\_ralf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@radar\_ralf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/radar_ralf)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/10 "2003-06-15T14:27:07Z")
[http://www.payphone-project.com/](http://www.payphone-project.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/11 "2003-06-15T15:58:47Z")
Could the OP say whether they meant just any pay phone, or a real “booth”? AFAIK Superman’s been out of luck already, for the past 15 or 20 years, what with real booths being replaced by simple freestanding pay phones on posts. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/12 "2003-06-15T17:16:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John Carter of Mars \* > \*\*Last week I was in a motel/conference center place and wanted a pay phone. Found the phone place and there were nothing but empty holes in the wall! > > The manager said so many people have cell phones that the pay phones had turned into a money loser and they had them removed. > > I had to borrow a friend’s cell phone to make my call. \*\* I bet he was lying. They lose money because too many people have discovered how much cheaper it is to use your own long distance carrier from a payphone than to use the hotel’s bloated rate. They may not make as much as they used to, but I strongly doubt they were losing money. At least one could have been left. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/13 "2003-06-15T17:24:36Z")
I was really more interested in actual phone booths. You can see that regular pay phones are disappearing, but I would like to know if anybody keeps track of or is interested in the old kind of phone booths. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/14 "2003-06-15T21:09:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Early Out \* > \*\*I wonder how long it will be before the term “phone booth” produces only puzzled looks from children. Sort of like “record album” does now. \*\* Ha!..or my 12 year old niece being amazed that Paul McCartney used to be in a ‘boy band’. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-phone-booths-are-left-in-the-usa/181901/15 "2003-06-16T06:14:26Z")
Although they were later… i’ll bet you’d draw more confused looks asking them what an 8-track is…