Just how fast have pay phones gone away in NJ?

A long time ago when you’d travel to New York City via NJ Transit train, you would arrive at Penn Station and climb those ugly stairs that opened to the concourse.

In front of you would be this huge wall just lined with pay phones and anchored inside actual phone booths where you stepped inside and pulled the door closed. People would conduct business this way. Reporters phoned in stories this way.

It was ridiculous. It seems unthinkable now, but then it was all they had.

I remember taking my now teenagers to Union County Park when they were about 5 and 7 so this had to be 2012. In a small building where the restrooms were was a pay phone hanging on a wall like some museum artifact.

I went to it and picked up the receiver just to make sure it was long disconnected. Except it wasn’t. There was a dial tone, and I was shocked. Then they asked what I was listening to and next thing they wanted to hear it. They listened as if it were an exhibit at Liberty Science Center, and it occurred to me they had never heard a dial tone before.

We were a cell phone-only household from before they were born and of course they hadn’t been exposed to any office phones yet. They were fascinated with this strange sound as I did my best to answer their questions on what this noise meant.

It was rare to see one even then. Twelve years later I can't tell you the last time I saw even a non-working pay phone. Not even one covered in graffiti with wires jutting out of a broken mouthpiece.

Below is a state-by-state list from the last year available of just how much pay phones have declined. They became so rare and useless that by 2018 the Federal Communications Commission stopped requiring audits of them, so these numbers go back to 2016 when data was last available. It’s anyone’s guess how much more rare a pay phone sighting is today, but as of a few years ago New Jersey was about in the middle of the pack of states for pay phone decline.

You’ll see some shocking numbers when you get down to New Jersey’s place on this list. Also, the state that had the fewest pay phones left in 2016 is truly surprising when you would figure it would have been a state that adopted modern technology earlier than the rest.

Here’s a look at the collapse of pay phones across the United States with data gathered from the FCC by Spokeo.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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