[pyman]

You could also argue that they disappeared the moment Neo took that Nokia 8110 out of his pocket and everyone wanted one of those instead. Even Nokia released the 8110i because people wanted that same phone, which had been modified for Neo.

The fact that mobile phones took off after the movie and replaced pay phones could also suggest that most people don’t want to escape the Matrix and realised that ignorance is bliss.

(Just saying what Cypher would say)