Los Angeles County is moving to keep an old-school form of communication alive, approving plans to spend close to $1 million on nearly 250 public pay phones across the region.
The Los Angeles County Internal Services Department, known as ISD, asked the Board of Supervisors to authorize more than $953,000 for a maintenance contract covering 241 pay phones located throughout county facilities.
Under the proposed agreement with LittleJohn Communications Inc., the county would avoid any interruption in pay phone service while also creating a simpler contracting system for departments that still need access to the phones.
According to the request, ISD already oversees a contract supporting pay phones used by both county employees and the public at locations such as county parks, courthouses, sheriff’s facilities and hospitals.
The agreement also keeps one familiar feature intact: the phones must continue to accept payment the traditional way, by dropping coins into the machine.
As part of the deal, Los Angeles County would receive 60% of revenue from any pay phone that brings in at least $100 per month, according to the contract terms.
Phones that generate $99.99 or less in monthly revenue would not produce a county revenue share, though the county would still pay $54.95 per phone each month for maintenance.
The nearly $1 million contract would cover a range of pay phone service needs, including maintenance, repairs, replacement parts, routine inspections, coin collection systems, network connectivity troubleshooting, vandalism response and related upkeep.
The current county contract is set to expire on September 30, with just a few month-to-month extensions remaining.
If approved, the new contract would take effect on October 1 initially stretch for five years, with several extension options up to a maximum of eight years and six months.
The same communications company was awarded a county contract in 2019 to provide pay phone services for a period of five years with extensions for nearly $1.2 million, per county documents.
It is unclear how long it will take for the board to approve the request.
While LA is willing to spend a staggering amount on pay phone, New York City saw its last standing coin-operated public pay phone removed from a Times Square street in 2022.
The outdated technology was replaced with digital kiosks offering free WiFi, domestic calling, mobile device charging, 911 and 311, access and other services.
