Pay Phones Are Still Around (For How Long?)

Cell phones may be ubiquitous, but pay phones still have a place--literally--at airports, subways, hospitals, and other locations. Wherever cell phones just won't work or non-cell users need to make calls, pay phones are a good but increasingly scarce option.

Verizon just sold a chunk of its dwindling pay phone business to PTS (Pacific Telemanagement Services), which sees "tremendous opportunity there." The last of the Baby Bells to offer pay phone service, Verizon is hanging onto a handful of its choice locations. Pay phones are also targeting prisons, where inmates must call collect or arrange a prepaid call. PTS is active in this market, as well. 

The pay phone industry was deregulated during the 1990s, in an effort to spur competition and keep phones in place. But with rapid penetration of cell phones, pay phone usage dropped (landline usage also) and companies began to withdraw from the market. Will pay phones still be around by 2020?