[chi17]

Payphones could make a comeback, and the "payphone" was really a public videophone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-YBYzo4XUY

    Deckard calls Rachael on a public videophone.

from script: http://www.trussel.com/bladerun.htm

[Retra]

Public videophones could be made right now, if we wanted. Problem is that nobody wants them because they are less convenient than the simpler alternatives.

[chi17]

The simpler alternatives involve having to pay a monthly fee or having to pre-pay for minutes. In the future, perhaps we won't have the luxury of paying for a lot of service we haven't yet used and might not need to use.

[dmitriid]

Welcome to the present, called "the rest of the world that's not the US" ;)

(yeah, yeah, I know that many countries still have outrageous prices for networks, be it fiber or mobile).