How I Learned to Love the Obamaphone

Some of our readers will be aware that I have a working payphone. It has since been relocated from Norfolk, VA to neighboring Portsmouth, VA, but it works just the same. “Pick up the handset, listen for the ring tone, dial a phone number, insert quarters if required”. Now, four years down the road, I wonder if this was the correct approach to public communications. It is common knowledge that near-universal cell phone adoption led to the demise of the payphone network. These rugged devices retrenched from a ubiquitous sight to core locations such as government buildings and transit centers, and now many public facilities have forgone them altogether. What gives? The Lifeline cell phone, or Obamaphone. The program had existed since the Reagan era as a landline subsidy, but around 2008, entrepreneurs determined that cell phones could be issued to the needy for less than $9.25 per month, thereby requiring no out-of-pocket cost for basic phone models. Thus, I had to reframe my mind around the remaining fragments of a public telephone network, in which I include courtesy phones you may find on the front desks of hotels, hospitals, and airport terminals. In contrast to the third-party commercial interests that determine payphone removals, ensuring that these public courtesy phones remain in place now appeared to be a high priority. If we could approach grocery stores and transit centers to provide courtesy phones, then we might have a basic but functioning network of public telephones. Who is going to pay for this public telephone network? The State of Maine notably funds 50 public interest payphones, which is not too dissimilar from the keypad-equipped call boxes found at highway rest stops in other states. Overall, though, this duty was left to the private sector. In contrast, the Lifeline program gives an individual subsidy that enables a niche cell phone market to thrive. Thus, within existing constraints, expanding enrollment in Lifeline, and putting Obamaphones in more hands, is the most economically viable option for those interested in public communications access. Reversing the retrenchment of public telephones- payphones or courtesy phones- is the next issue to address.