Internet Pay Phones in Midtown

For all the wired souls who don't have a Blackberry or web-enabled cell phone or PDA, there is hope for you when you really want to check your email: The city is rolling out 25 Internet pay phones (mostly in Midtown). For 50 cents, you can check your email and even upload photographs while web-surfing is 25 cents per minute. Checking out government websites is free while porn sites are blocked. The Post also reports that 4 million still use New York's 33,000 pay phones daily, even though that numbed has descreased by 50% recently with the accessibility of cell phones. TCC Teleplex, the company behind these Internet phones, rolled out the first one in NYC (and nation) over a year and a half ago. It will be interesting to see how popular these phones will be now that many cell phones and PDA have better web functionality. Tourists and those who want to use them for the novelty seem likely customers; most people in Midtown could easily go back to their offices for their own computers.

For more about phones, PDAs, and various gadget that can get you connected sans a traditional computer, check out Gizmodo.