By Rhyanna S. DeTuathana | Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:00 am
There used to be pay phones at apartment complexes, convenience stores, grocery stores, gas stations, and so on.
There aren't anymore. When someone wants to make a phone call, they are told to get a cell phone.
Big ole problem with that: What if you can't afford a cell phone, or your credit is so bad, you can't get one - not even one of those prepaid phones - because on those you have to buy a phone (ouch!) at $60 to $200 plus calling card, etc.?
With pay phones, people didn't need a coin to dial O for "operator" to be connected to the 911 call center if they needed police, fire, etc.
With cell phones, based on my experience, if you don't have an active account or a credit card and you need police, fire, etc., you can't be put through to a 911 call center.
So imagine you are out of work, no money coming in, and/or have severe health problems where you need to be able to dial 911 immediately, what are you supposed to do?
So I have a proposition for the phone companies:
Offer local basic phone service free to low- income people, with line protection with proof of assistance (like we do when we send in the application from the public utilities for low-income phone assistance).
Besides, the phone company makes money by charging for call-waiting, call-forwarding, voice mail, call conference, etc.
Also, have businesses bring back pay phones for people to use. Pay phones can be made to accept credit cards, debit cards, calling cards or even tokens/coins.
Just they don't need to be put back on each corner, but how about every two to three blocks or so?
Rhyanna S. DeTuathana is a Corvallis resident.