What was life like in the 1980's?

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RainbowUnion
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20 Feb 2018, 2:30 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
And they are still needed....


Yes, but with cell phones they are just not worth the bother for the phone companies to set up and maintain.


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auntblabby
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20 Feb 2018, 6:30 pm

that wouldn't be a bother if nobody lived out in the sticks away from the cell towers.



Chronos
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20 Feb 2018, 9:26 pm

I saw a payphone the other day. I was so surprised, I pointed it out to the person I was with



kraftiekortie
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20 Feb 2018, 9:32 pm

Now....imagine if that payphone actually worked????

Even around the year 2000, payphones were still used quite a bit by people.



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20 Feb 2018, 9:48 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
Now....imagine if that payphone actually worked????

Even around the year 2000, payphones were still used quite a bit by people.


I didn't test it.

I haven't used a payphone in over 15 years. It took my money so I called the operator and provided my address so they could send me a check. I never received the check and a few weeks later, the payphone had been ripped out.



kraftiekortie
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20 Feb 2018, 9:52 pm

To be honest, I still believe we need payphones for emergencies. For when cell service gets knocked out, while "regular" phone service remains.

I'm guessing there aren't any payphones, primarily, because of the "sabotage" you described.



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20 Feb 2018, 9:55 pm

there needs to be a universal cell phone standard, with uniform reception over the entire nation [however that is accomplished], where any off-the-rack cellphone will immediately work with it. that would be the 21st century version of a payphone.



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20 Feb 2018, 10:44 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
To be honest, I still believe we need payphones for emergencies. For when cell service gets knocked out, while "regular" phone service remains.

I'm guessing there aren't any payphones, primarily, because of the "sabotage" you described.


The local twisted copper carrier in my area charges $60 for local plus extended coverage phone service, not including long distance. I've heard they have been accused of failing to maintain their network in an attempt to force customers to discontinue it in favor of fiber optic that they are now offering in some areas. The reason is, fiber optic is more profitable because it can support data speeds that can compete with cable (greater than 100Mbps) and allows carriers to offer TV as well, while conventional twisted copper often doesn't support more than 1Mbps. The only benefit to twisted copper is that it carriers the power to the phone so when the main power grid goes out, conventional phone lines often still work.



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21 Feb 2018, 3:38 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
I'm guessing there aren't any payphones, primarily, because of the "sabotage" you described.


Have been around Europe over the years, only place i saw payphones were in London, that probably only keeps them around in numbers because the phone booths are part of their culture (probably many Dr Who fans). We had similar stylized phone booths in Sweden, but most were replaced by modern ones and now i only know of one older, stylized one that is kept around as part of an heritage museum - most phone boots are gone and it is rare to see one. You can however, see people everywhere with iPhones and Androids...

It looks like this, but i think it is more green:
Image

Probable reason is that the government phone company was deregulated during the 1990s and lots of compeditors popped up, i guess fair competition and all that were a factor.


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21 Feb 2018, 9:05 am

In the 1990's, there was a peak of almost 3 million pay phones in the United States alone.



Galizen
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21 Feb 2018, 2:00 pm

Hello !
I used a payphone in London en 2013. Ok it ate my pound and gave me no change but I was able to reach my hostel since my mobile was out of order.



MirrorWars
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21 Feb 2018, 3:20 pm

Galizen wrote:
Hello !
I used a payphone in London en 2013. Ok it ate my pound and gave me no change but I was able to reach my hostel since my mobile was out of order.


Did it stink of piss like they did in the 80s?

And have calling cards for local prostitutes pinned inside?



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21 Feb 2018, 6:34 pm

Galizen wrote:
Hello !
I used a payphone in London en 2013. Ok it ate my pound and gave me no change but I was able to reach my hostel since my mobile was out of order.

welcome to WP 8)



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21 Feb 2018, 11:49 pm

Being called a nerd or a geek had a somewhat different meaning and was almost always a bad thing until the 1990's.

Dentists would tell us we had to brush our teeth right after every meal. Now they tell us doing that can ruin your tooth enamel even more.

I hated the cheap imitations of popular toys so much that one time at around Christmas I wrote "NO IMITATIONS!" on my presents list. But now a lot of collectors are into them mainly because of their weirdness. For example cheap knock-offs of My Little Pony are affectionately nicknamed "fakies". They've been around since the G1 ponies were out and some of them are really rare, but as a kid I found most of them creepy or ugly.

I remember there being a knock-off of Cabbage Patch dolls that I actually was curious about, however. Maybe because some of the girl dolls had neon pink hair which the CPK didn't have. But the dolls gave off a strange smell, like kerosene, and they were shown on the news.

Speaking of CPK. they once came out with a line of dolls called preemies, which is short for "premature". They were basically just smaller, cuter versions of the original dolls, but the controversy led to them being later called "newborns". Nothing cute or fun about a real preemie baby hooked up to tubes while hoses and their own mother can't even touch their bare skin because it's too delicate. :( And then there was that commercial where a little girl has a CPK preemie and her grandma proudly tells her that she, the granddaughter, had been a preemie herself, and the grandma claimed it was her cookies that made the little girl grow up big and healthy. :lol:



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22 Feb 2018, 12:46 am

ubiquitous K-cars.



traven
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22 Feb 2018, 2:26 am

:roll:
talking some secret language here^^?