David_W_Tamkin@cup.portal.com (07/29/88)
This afternoon (Friday, July 29) I slid a quarter into a coin phone that had been in its location for as long as I remembered. I was placing (or attempting: the party didn't answer) a call to the next CO district, and in fact the phone was located along the border street. The phone looked as it always had, like any Illinois Bell public phone. But when I had pressed seven digits, a voice said, "Thank you." I looked again. The entire face of the phone was identical to a telco coin phone, and the dialing instructions were in the same ink color and typeface that Illinois Bell uses. There were only two differences: Illinois Bell's name and logo were absent and down lower, next to the coin return, was a sticker giving a local seven-digit number to call if repair is needed. Then I noticed that the telephone number was on an NXX opened only about seven years ago, though there had been a coin phone in that location since time immemorial. COCOT providers must now just be converting, instead of replacing, existing telco installations. David_W_Tamkin@cup.portal.com || sun!portal!cup.portal.com!david_w_tamkin