No surprise

I recently read this article on Switched.com about how ATT
is going to phase out their pay phones by 2009. I just wonder
what is taking them so long! The local phone company in our
area has noticibly decreased the number of pay phones around
town; the few that remain are owned by private companies, and
you have to pay an arm and a leg while jumping through hoops
to get to a national carrier. The pay phone that we used to have
outside of the restaurant has been gone 4 years. Of course, the
reason for all this can be easily be explained - cell phones. Every-
one seems to have at least one, even kids nowadays, and you see
the super busy/important/show off kind of folks with 2 or 3.
People can't eat out, shop, walk in the street, or drive their cars
without their cell phone. It has become the national obsession. So
who is actually going to dig for change to use a pay phone unless
their cell phone battery has died, or if they are in the boondocks
without coverage? Of course, we do have those folks who use pay
phones to make shady calls/deals where it's better to not dial
from your actual number, like some mobster verifying a hit, or a
drug dealer arranging a sale....you get the point!