The K & M Telephone Co. is seeking state permission to remove the sole remaining pay telephone in Chambers, Nebraska. The phone raked in $3.35 last year in change. K & M claims service and maintenance for the phone, and another one a half hour away, cost nearly $1500/year. The challenge is that Nebraska’s Public Service Commission requires each town to have at least one 24-hour public pay phone. From the Journal Star:
Other companies continue to eat losses. More than 200 miles to the west, the Keystone-Arthur Telephone Co. keeps pay phones for the locals in Keystone and Lemoyne and the tourists at lakes McConaughy and Ogallala.
Who spend about $2 per phone, per year.
But Keystone-Arthur hasn’t considered pulling them, the company’s Kelly Gies said.
“It’s a convenience for people. I still use pay stations once in awhile, when I have no options.”