Peoples Telephone Company

Before cell phones became another affordable, consumer electronic device, pay or coin phones could be found on virtually any street corner and retail store. For a brief time, this company established a valuable niche by becoming the largest non-Baby Bell owner-operator of pay phones. This annual report was PTC's last before cell phones blew the wind out of the company's sails, and sales. In addition to owning the familiar street and retail store pay phones, the company was the largest owner of pay phones in U.S. prisons, which it saw, quite logically, as a captive market.

"For nearly everyone, the telephone represents a convenient and dependable communications link, whether it's to reach friends, call business associates, get help in an emergency, or hear a comforting voice. But for the individuals housed in America's correctional facilities, the telephone is all this and more. For them, the telephone is often the only connection with the outside world."