Payphones, those relics of a lost age of personal freedom and superhero quick changes, are about to get an upgrade. Though over the years the phones (especially phone booths) have slowly been disappearing from our streets and subways, they aren't totally gone. Which is why a company called Smart City 24x7 is making a move to bring them into the 21st Century. To that end, they've not got a contract to install 250, 32" "smart screens" phones in payphones across the five boroughs.
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Results tagged “payphones”
Touchscreen Payphones Are Coming To New York City!
Would You Believe A Third Of Subway Pay Phones Don't Work?
Though it is coming, consistant cellphone service on the subway is still (thank god) a ways off. But emergencies do happen. And that is why the MTA has a contract with Verizon for all those pay phones that litter our stations (yeah, we know, we barely even see them anymore either—but they are there!). Only problem? According to a survey by the Straphangers Campaign nearly a third of those phones don't work.
Should Payphones Be Free?
The recently-engaged street artist Posterchild has an idea for the city's payphone network. He declares since the payphones have basically become nothing more than an "adverting-revenue generating platform, then they should make all local calls free."
Superhero-Friendly Phone Booths
Good news everyone: street artist Posterchild has brought superhero changing stations to NYC! How convenient for the caped and masked crusaders amongst us, and much needed since traditional phone booths are nearly extinct.
Brooklyn Man Pranks 911 Saying 'Cop Shot'
A 20-year-old in Park Slope was picked up by police and arrested for making a false report after placing four prank calls to 911 last week. What was the hilarious line that he was trying to get cops to believe? That one of their fellow officers had been shot in the head, even giving the badge number of the "wounded" officer. Police would go to each of the locations where the supposed shootings was, only to find nothing, and contact the officer, who was all right. Investigators ultimately recognized the voice of Daquan Gardner, who was arrested for a similar call in 2007. Just two weeks ago, Gardner had been arrested for smoking marijuana at Sixth Avenue and Fourth Street, the same area he was placing the calls from on a street pay phone. An investigator told the Post, "He got locked up, he was mad at the police and he was trying to cause trouble." One of the calls last week was placed just hours before Officer Omar Edwards was fatally shot in East Harlem.
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