Pay telephones in Pattaya are quickly going the way of the telegraph. Many of the booths are still standing, but if there are phones inside, they likely are dead.
With mobile phone penetration in Thailand higher than 100% – there are 13 million more mobile phones than people in Thailand – the need for a coin-operated fixed line has all but disappeared. The rise of the smartphone, expected to double penetration this year, is eliminating the need for voice calls altogether, as people text, e-mail and post to social media.
From necessity to eyesore, word has it that some of these phones still actually work. But fewer and fewer people are using them.
While public utilities have given up on pay phones, a few private companies are still trying to make a go of it. Most of these are in shopping malls and supermarkets, but a few working phones can be found on Pattaya’s streets.
Most, however, are ghost booths, filled with trash and advertisement, not people and phones. Technically, pasting advertisements on phone booths is illegal under a 1992 city law, but like so many Thai laws, they’re not enforced.
Nonetheless, police occasionally find it a handy code to roll out during larger arrests. A Russian arrested recently on loan-sharking charges was also charged with advertising his illegal business on old phone booths.
