public telephones.

everyone just needs to get a mobile telephone?

I have exhausted this thread by myself. I am glad.

I suppose people could still live without their damn cellphones. but.

They'll just rob yours off you.

and yes.

i can't think of where the nearest public telephone to me might be. like, maybe several miles away, in a nearby downtown? i live near several main roads in a city with ~300000 people and i can't really even picture pay phones on any of them. maybe one or two i never noticed near convenience stores?

there's one at a 7-11 around the corner from me. they are usually still at convenience stores in my mid-size western city but for like 1.50 for a local call or something ridiculous.

I don't know any around this area. Don't think Lidl has one and haven't been in Centra for ages but can't picture one. The internet cafe that had phones closed a couple of years back. So really don't know what somebody out here would do. 4km out of town where there still are a number of booths.
Did notice that 1 of those booths had a notice on saying it would be removed at a date that passed some months back. I think its still there but its somewhere that I need to be consciously heading in a certain direction to pass. Maybe that was why it was deemed unnecessary, its out-of-the-wayness.

lots of public phones still in Sydney, usually also now functioning as wi-fi hotspots

First thing I noticed - and this was like 10 years ago - was that you could text/SMS from (some) Sydney payphones.

Our Walmart's got a payphone. I can't think of any nearby in the outdoors.

great semi- private place to just blaze IME