Verizon May Equip Pay Phones with Wireless Links

Back in January we had an post about a Forbes article telling phone companies that they should turn all their pay phones into wireless hotspots. Bell Canada started experimenting with just such a plan recently. Now Verizon has admitted that they'll probably announce a similar plan shortly. To some extent, this makes sense, since pay phones are becoming increasingly less important in the age of mobile phones. The big question, still, is one of business model. At least Verizon admits that they can't justify charging at this point. If anything, it sounds like they're planning to tie it to your landline phone bill or your Verizon Wireless plan. The idea isn't to make money directly - but to keep customers and reduce churn by promising them access to WiFi. Of course, when they get desperate, they'll probably switch to charging.

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