Verizon pay phone
rates rise to 50 cents

The declining use of pay phones
brings about the increase

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Coming soon to a pay phone near you, local calls for 50 cents.

That is the news from Verizon Hawaii Inc., following yesterday's announcement by its parent company that it will start converting its 430,000 pay phones in 33 states in the next few weeks to require 50 cents in the slot, up from 35 cents.

Verizon Hawaii spokes- woman Ann Nishida said the conversion in Hawaii could take some time to complete, since it will be done one phone at a time.

The company is raising the price nationally because it has experienced a 23 percent decline in pay phone use over the past two years, due to the growth in use of cellular phones.

In Hawaii, callers will be able to talk indefinitely for 50 cents, as they can now for 35 cents, Nishida said. The price for directory assistance will rise to 50 cents from 25 cents. If a caller uses directory assistance and then makes a call, the toll comes to a dollar.

It is a matter of economics, Nishida said, driven by the need in a declining market to bring in enough money to keep the pay phones available and well maintained.

Cell phone users may find reasons to use the pay phones even at that price, she said. In some circumstances it might be cheaper for them, and cell phone batteries do run down, she said.

Look for a sticker saying something like "local calls 50 cents," Nishida said. If the phone does not have a sticker, it is still 35 cents.

She declined to say how many pay phones Verizon Hawaii has in place, saying that is proprietary information the company does not want to give out for competitive reasons. Nishida said Verizon Hawaii has more than 20 competitors in the local pay phone business. Whether they planned to follow suit with rate hikes was unknown at press time.

Calls to the 911 emergency number, calls to "0" for operator assistance and 800-number calls will still be free, she said.

Parent Verizon Communications Inc. said some phones in its service areas may not be converted until next year. In some areas the 50-cent price will introduce unlimited time on the phone for the first time.

Those are areas, mostly in New England, where callers paid 35 cents for an initial block of three to five minutes and had to drop in extra coins to talk longer.