These days, Clark Kent would have serious trouble finding a phone booth to make a speedy change into his Superman outfit. For that matter, he probably would have trouble finding any kind of pay phone. Those open-air kiosks - remnants of the enclosed booths of yesteryear - are slowly disappearing from America's sidewalks and street corners.
Due to the exploding popularity of cell phones in the past few years, the pay phone industry has suffered many setbacks. Today, there are about 2.2 million pay phones nationwide, down about 15 percent from a peak of 2.6 million in 1998, according to the American Public Communications Council - the national trade association representing independent pay phone service providers.
The cell phones that are pushing pay phones by the wayside are a far cry from the first booths that came into existence over 100 years ago when William Gray invented the pay phone in 1889 in Hartford, Conn.
These early pay phones resided in fancy, spacious booths with a polished wood interior. An attendant politely collected money and placed the calls. Over the years, pay phone booths have undergone a drastic shrinkage in scale, and these once prized devices have endured a considerable loss of respect - and use.
The three pay phones in Newcomb Hall stand lonely and dormant one afternoon as two whole hours passed without a single person using them to make a call. Even the pay phone located outside Lucky Seven on the Corner remained idle for an hour one Wednesday, its phone book swinging lazily from a tattered cord.
Paul Francischetti, vice president of marketing and business development for Verizon's public communications group, said the downward trend has really picked up since the fall of 1998, when the "cell phone price wars" erupted with flat rates, nationwide coverage and free minutes.
"That's when the curve started changing," Francischetti said. "We saw a real dramatic change in wireless usage, and that translated into a downward trend in pay phone usage."
Jeff Sargent, a Sprint representative in the pay phone division, said Sprint currently services Charlottesville with 152 pay phones. Sprint provides Charlottesville with a majority of its pay phones and Sargent estimated that only three years ago the city had several hundred Sprint pay phones.
On Grounds, the Newcomb Hall Information Desk estimates that only seven pay phones exist for student use. This small number, however, does not seem to cause many problems for students.
Meghan Van Horne, a 2001 College graduate who now works at the Office of Orientation, said she uses cell phones all the time.
"They are just more convenient," Van Horne said. "Plus, pay phones are annoying because you have to pay 35 cents."
Second-year College student Kelly Chewning agreed.
"I only use a pay phone maybe three times a year," Chewning said. "For me, it's just easier to have a cell phone because it's always there when I need it."
Katie Torrens, a second-year College student, said she "can't remember the last time" she used a pay phone.
On any given day of the week, throngs of cell phone users are chatting away while walking briskly to class. It is clear that cell phones have become a regular, if not dominant, mode of communication for students on Grounds. The ability to send and receive calls at any time holds great appeal for these cell phone users.
"I carry my cell phone with me everywhere and I use it everyday," Torrens said.
Some students, however, still rely on the old-fashioned method of depositing their pocket change to make a call.
"Cell phones are convenient but unnecessary," fourth-year Engineering student Audrey Okemo said. "I may be a dying breed, but I don't use cell phones at all. If I'm out of the house, I just use a pay phone."
Okemo admitted she's just not comfortable carrying a cell phone.
"Why have cell phone, when all it means is that people can reach me all the time wherever I am?" she said. "There is no privacy in that."
But Okemo may have been right to categorize herself as part of a "dying breed." The dramatic growth in cell phones has caused many pay phone service providers to worry about the future of the already dwindling industry. Vince Sandusky, president of the American Public Communications Council, said he has witnessed a considerable decrease in the public's use of pay phones.
Yet because of the number of Americans still dependent on pay phone service, Sandusky stressed the importance of keeping the industry alive and viable.
"More than 5.5 million homes - including an estimated 25 percent of urban poor households - do not have basic telephone service," he said. "These households rely on pay phones for all kinds of calls, from the mundane to the emergency."
So what exactly would it take to revive the disappearing pay phone? A climate-controlled booth with a reclining chair? Colored receivers to rival the Nokia spectrum of flare? Should it be attached to the library table, connected to the gas pump or even the elliptical machine?
For Hythan Shageer, a Charlottesville resident, this wasn't the case. On a bright day in February he stood outside the Corner's Lucky 7, cradling the bacteria-laden receiver of a pay phone in his hands.
He wasn't multi-tasking - not cooking, driving or checking e-mail while trying to engage in conversation. Instead, he was simply talking. Shageer said he uses pay phones instead of cell phones because he "needs space."
And even at that, Shageer said, "I only use pay phones when I need them, probably twice a week."
Just as cellular reception across the country is becoming clearer, it is becoming apparent that the modern, pocket-sized cell phone is rapidly pushing the cumbersome pay phone out of the picture.
Iman Kan, a senior consumer analyst at the Yankee Group, a technology consulting company in Boston, warned that, "In the next few years pay phones will become increasingly harder to find as wireless options become better and better."
For those not ready to relinquish the old-fashioned mode of communication, www.payphonespot.com has the solution: an $889.99 Bell-style pay phone. One day, it may be the last of its kind.
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