The continued need for pay phones

When I see that a pay phone has been removed from a place I was used to seeing it, I feel uneasy. The assumption that we've all got mobile phones and so no longer need pay phones forgets those who can't afford one, those whose mobile has run out of credit or power, those who simply don't want to own one. This intelligent article in today's New York Times focuses on a pay phone outside a Queens courthouse and so appears only to argue that there is an underclass who needs such access, but the need is greater than that, extending to the many who have lost their jobs and homes over the last couple years as well as those who can't use their mobile for one reason or another. Something to keep in mind.