Last seen: at a pay phone around 3 p.m. as she was walking home from school.

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But so far Novick is apparently the only outdoor Web pay phone service stateside.

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So the city of New York is trying to give the humble pay phone an upgrade.

CNN: Is the pay phone making a comeback?

But the new contest hopes to create a new purpose for the pay phone.

CNN: Is the pay phone making a comeback?

The warrant alleges that Hilton made a phone call Friday from a pay phone at the QuikTrip.

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You may recall Airfone, the air-to-ground pay phone service that debuted on commercial flights in the 1980s.

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Hilton made a phone call from a pay phone at the same convenience store Friday, the warrant also alleges.

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At least having access to a working pay phone kept them connected to family and friends for only 50 cents.

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She never returned after going to a neighborhood store to use a pay phone, cousin Brenda Dinickle told CNN's Zoraida Sambolin.

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When Martha gets to a pay phone and calls her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), we realize how far we are from Middle-earth.

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But to stay relevant, the pay phone of the future needs to offer valuable services at all times, not just during emergencies.

CNN: Is the pay phone making a comeback?

Verizon, one of the nation's largest pay phone owners, says it found little demand after testing Web pay phones in heavily trafficked areas.

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She added that it was "very scary" to think that someone might have so much trouble finding a pay phone in an emergency.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

If you went to school in 1976, chances are good you had to use a pay phone to call home or contact your friends.

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Why, specifically, would they turn to them? iReporter Miriam Cintron asked a pay phone user she met in New York City that very question.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

The exhibit and accompanying pay phone campaign run through May 26.

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Cynthia Falardeau of Vero Beach, Florida, had little problem finding a pay phone because she knew the owners of a gas station that had one.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

He has a pay phone in his yard in Lakeville, Indiana.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

The pay phone is indeed a boon to the poorer class.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

Last weekend's challenge was to find a local pay phone.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

She had to wait an hour by a pay phone to find someone who wanted to use it, and in his case, it was an emergency call.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

Pay phone volume across New York City's five boroughs rose tenfold during Sandy, said Peter Izzo of Van Wagner Communications, which operates 4, 200 pay phones in the city.

CNN: Is the pay phone making a comeback?

You had to unfold a map and find your way -- unless you were lucky enough to find a pay phone in a safe area and had two dimes.

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Walking home from the movie theater years ago with quarters jingling in her purse, Wendy Covington always carried spare change in case she needed to use the pay phone.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

John Bonomo, a spokesman for Verizon, the largest pay phone provider in the United States, confirmed what many iReporters found in their searches: the more people, the more pay phones.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

Or he could talk to Stephen Grimmer, who has one of those, as well as a vintage, working pay phone in his Williamsburg, Virginia, home, passed down by his grandmother.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

Many iReporters said it was hard to find a pay phone at all and that it was even harder to find one that actually worked and was used on a regular basis.

CNN: Pay phones: The search for an endangered species

The Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge dares students, technologists, designers, policy experts and urban planners, to come up with new solutions to take advantage of the existing pay phone framework and shape the future of public communications infrastructure.

CNN: Is the pay phone making a comeback?

"What's unique about the pay phone network in New York is that the reliability of service is overwhelming -- and not just in hurricanes, " said Izzo, citing the blackout of 2003 and the chaos of Sept. 11, 2001.

CNN: Is the pay phone making a comeback?

People still use the pay phone.

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