Free Public Phones?

[Michael Valdivielso]

I was watching international news, on MHz, and they had a story about
free 'pay' phones in Japan - you tap in the phone number on the
screen, watch 15 seconds of adds and then your call goes thru - free!
It was an interesting story. I just wondering if that system is only
used for calls within Japan or could a visitor use it to call outside
of Japan?

I wonder if they would start something like that here in the US? Just
a step away from public TV. I bet they would use a card system, so
the phone could know about your gender and interests and show the
proper adds.

Thanks,

Mike V.

[DougH]

> I wonder if they would start something like that here in the US? Just
> a step away from public TV. I bet they would use a card system, so
> the phone could know about your gender and interests and show the
> proper adds.

There used to be a system like this in the U.S. You could use your own phone or a payphone, listen to an add you would get two minutes of free long distance. The company went out of business since more people used the free long distance than responding to the adds, myself included. I plugged in the old URL www.freeway.com and it looks like they are moving into the voice over IP business. No telling how long this will stay affloat.

DougH

[Dave Fossett]

Michael Valdivielso wrote:

> I was watching international news, on MHz, and they had a story about
> free 'pay' phones in Japan - you tap in the phone number on the
> screen, watch 15 seconds of adds and then your call goes thru - free!
> It was an interesting story. I just wondering if that system is only
> used for calls within Japan or could a visitor use it to call outside
> of Japan?

I'm interested. Does anyone know where these can be found? It seems hard
enough to find even a regular public phone these days.

--
Dave Fossett
Saitama, Japan

[thegoons]

I saw one of these freebies in a shopping arcade under JR Sapporo-eki.

Talk about lack of public phones, like finding gold to locate one in
Roppongi Hills.

"Dave Fossett" <re...@via.newsgroup> wrote in message
news:bFu7b.100$SG6...@news1.dion.ne.jp...

[Michael Cash]

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 09:49:14 +0900, "Dave Fossett"
<re...@via.newsgroup> belched the alphabet and kept on going with:

Phone booths are still quite popular. They are handy for ducking into
to reduce background noise while talking on one's cell phone.