I think it means a phone which the service is delivered via a wire to the phone itself without the benefit of the internet and not radio frequency.
Nor power. remember, phone lit up even when the lights were out. Those were the days! NO internet NO wireless NO power. Life was so much simpler lol
When I was in Scouts as a kid, we toured the local phone company. Still remember the rows of batteries and hundreds of switching relays.
How many airports and train stations even have those white courtesy phones anymore?
Public pay phones are becoming a thing of the past, when you do find one, they want dollars not a quarter to make a local call,We lost all privacy with the cell phones and the computer
I fully agree and to be more broad - IMHO we lost all privacy when we transitioned from analog to digital and digital keeps getting more & more transparent. We are in the land of big brother and now going for contaminating outer space.
All great and interesting points. But with those courtesy phones, granted there are still some at airports but how many people really use them? There are always cabs lined up at the airports plus just about everyone has a mobile in their pocket. Next time I go thru an airport, I will see how many I encounter.