Bay Area Company Still Thriving In Pay Phone Business

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - An East Bay company has dialed into an old industry many consumers assumed was dead. Its business is off the hook, you might say.

Walnut Creek-based PTS - Pacific Telemanagement Services - was considered to be among the last ones standing in the pay phone industry.

PTS still makes money in this smartphone era, one phone call at a time.  Revenue in 2010 was expected to be $60 million.

KCBS' Mike Sugerman Reports:

Who needs a phone booth these days? Maybe only Superman, theorized KCBS reporter Mike Sugerman.

"You ever used one?" he asked one woman.

"Uh, no I have my iPhone," she responded.

"When was the last time you used a pay phone?"

"I don't even remember. Maybe when it was ten cents."

That, Sugerman pointed out, was back in the late 1970s.  Now, it's 50-cents to make a call on a pay phone.

Obviously, somebody is still using a pay phone. Who?

"My cell phone is shut off," acknowledged one man. "I'm trying to call my mom and let her know I went to confession today, after 45 years."

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