Can you live without your .....

[Lanolin]

I was a kid still into the early teen years, I never paid for a payphone call cause of the box I had. Id just go to the payphone use my box and call whoever i wanted to call.

cool do you still use it, though was thr box itself something you had to pay for?
if everyone had one of those do you think people would hog the payphones or maybe they should all just be free.
I mean wifi is free as long as you dont go over a certain amount of gigs.

They could make payphones free and just put a time limit on the call. I suppose people would just hang up and call again.

 

[wisebeardman]

cool do you still use it, though was thr box itself something you had to pay for?
if everyone had one of those do you think people would hog the payphones or maybe they should all just be free.
I mean wifi is free as long as you dont go over a certain amount of gigs.

They could make payphones free and just put a time limit on the call. I suppose people would just hang up and call again.

wifi didn't exist back in the day and only way to connect to internet was dial up.

and payphones don't really exist anymore and have not for almost 20 years now.

the box was nothing more then a recording of the sub audible tone that would be sent when you put a quarter into the payphone. I put box up to phone receiver, press button and the payphone *thinks* i just put in 25 cents, press again and now it thinks 50 cents have been put in. and so on and so on. so I could call local which was 25 cents or I could call long distance which was x amount per min. I even made some international prank calls to the UK and Aussie land a couple times.

 

[Lanolin]

wifi didn't exist back in the day and only way to connect to internet was dial up.

and payphones don't really exist anymore and have not for almost 20 years now.

the box was nothing more then a recording of the sub audible tone that would be sent when you put a quarter into the payphone. I put box up to phone receiver, press button and the payphone *thinks* i just put in 25 cents, press again and now it thinks 50 cents have been put in. and so on and so on. so I could call local which was 25 cents or I could call long distance which was x amount per min. I even made some international prank calls to the UK and Aussie land a couple times.

hey I walked past one the other day on the main street it was still there. aparently still working.
I dont think they take coins anymore though. its phone cards or credit cards now.

 

[Alyd20]

No I’m gen z I can’t live without it

 

[Alyd20]

hey I walked past one the other day on the main street it was still there. aparently still working.
I dont think they take coins anymore though. its phone cards or credit cards now.

What’s a pay phone

 

[Lanolin]

What’s a pay phone

its a public phone you have to pay each time you make a call.
Youd go in a booth and there will be a telephone stuck to the wall. You can talk to someone om this phone.

 

[Alyd20]

its a public phone you have to pay each time you make a call.
Youd go in a booth and there will be a telephone stuck to the wall. You can talk to someone om this phone.

Thanks I was born in 2001 never heard of one

 

[Lanolin]

before cellphones and wifi, people didnt carry phones on them all the time.
You could call from a payphone, and you could also call a payphone (though I never did). They had them on the main streets and in malls in most towns and cities.

Otherwise you just asked a shop or business or library if you could use their phone to make a call. eg calling for a taxi. emergency calls were free though.

 

[wisebeardman]

hey I walked past one the other day on the main street it was still there. aparently still working.
I dont think they take coins anymore though. its phone cards or credit cards now.

Here you won't find any anymore.

 

[Lanolin]

Here you won't find any anymore.

depends on how advanced your phone network is.
some areas they are still putting in broadband.

in rural and remote areas they might lack cellular coverage or 4g or whatever it is nowadays.

 

[wisebeardman]

depends on how advanced your phone network is.
some areas they are still putting in broadband.

in rural and remote areas they might lack cellular coverage or 4g or whatever it is nowadays.

Well I am in the USA, payphones are dead, ain't coming back. they was removed couple decades ago from lack of use. As for broadband, that is another issue many places here can't get broadband cause the ISP are monopolies and thus will NOT spend on infrastructure. my entire county should have been laid out with fiber 20 years ago but wasnt due to the ISP monopolies.

 

[EnglishChick]

....Smartphone?
Just wondering.
If you switched it off for a month and didnt use it would you survive?
Hands up who doesnt have one and when they need to contact some body just borrow someone elses phone, email, msg online at a computer, use the landline, write a letter or go see them.

I mean can we actually ditch them so they arent taking up so much space in our pockets and handbags and giving out radiation.

I have a tablet and it uses the Wi-Fi in my home . Occasionally I use it outside the home of they have free WiFi access there

But no smartphone can't afford any more bills!

I have a "dumb" phone that does texts and calls

 

[wisebeardman]

I have a tablet and it uses the Wi-Fi in my home . Occasionally I use it outside the home of they have free WiFi access there

But no smartphone can't afford any more bills!

I have a "dumb" phone that does texts and calls

yeah but UK phone numbers are well complicated.

 

[EnglishChick]

yeah but UK phone numbers are well complicated.

how so?

 

[wisebeardman]

how so?

well how many numbers are in the phone number and city to city could have a different amount of numbers. and they seem to change codes at random. and how do you group them? at least the US we group them 123-456-7890 the uk however.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ nobody seems to know

 

[EnglishChick]

well how many numbers are in the phone number and city to city could have a different amount of numbers. and they seem to change codes at random. and how do you group them? at least the US we group them 123-456-7890 the uk however.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ nobody seems to know

Ah, yes, I see. Yeah we have area codes so would see how it a bit confusing. That only really applies to landlines though not mobiles. Noble numbers a bit straightforward

As for other countries I don't call abroad much. I prefer internet for that

 

[wisebeardman]

Ah, yes, I see. Yeah we have area codes so would see how it a bit confusing. That only really applies to landlines though not mobiles. Noble numbers a bit straightforward

As for other countries I don't call abroad much. I prefer internet for that

it is one thing the North America Number Plan was good at. how our numbers work.

Area code 3 digits, city code 3 digits and then subscriber number 4 digits. you have many city codes in a city and come area codes have many for the area but its easy to still figure out where the number comes from.

everything I have read about uk phone system. area codes can be 3 to 5 digits, and it just gets more confusing from that point on lol. I do understand UK has its own code for mobile devices 070 i think it is.

 

[Lanolin]

I think the best thing is free msging rather than txting (which costs) or calling (also costs, and inconvenient, cos you could call at the wrong time or a different time zone)
emailing can be a hassle because it can fill up inbox and you get junk as well.

If msging is restricted, is fast to pick up on, and free, its better than other forms of communication. I dont need an email on my phone. I save that for the computer when I have more time and am at work.

A phone that just does msging would be fine.

No camera, email or games, music or anything else. those map direction things should be built into your car anyway I reckon. if you absolutely have to have a phone in your car it ought to be hands free. Otheriwse its just stupid having it there.