Northwest Missouri State getting rid of its pay phones

MARYVILLE, Mo. -- Pay phone usage has become obsolete at Northwest Missouri State University, and soon coin-operated phones won't be available on campus.

University officials said cell phones and inexpensive pre-paid phone cards have become so popular that very few people are using pay phones on campus. The average monthly revenue from each of the 29 phones is about $4.55, far from the $135 it takes for them to break even.

The university will save about $45,000 annually by having the phones removed.

"Back in the 1980s, Northwest received hundreds of dollars per month because we were given a share of the income from the pay phones on campus," said Jon Rickman, vice president for information systems. "But in the early 1990s, Northwest started placing phones and voice mailboxes in every residence hall room, which greatly reduced pay phone activity. The profits became so low that the phones were just a service provided by Sprint, the local phone company."

Sprint gave the university the choice of either paying the difference between the $135 monthly lease option per phone and what is generated by each phone, or having them all removed.