Old payphones get new life, thanks to Vermont engineer
78 comments
·June 5, 2025askvictor
femto
Also likely with a view to using them as locations for 5G/6G/WiFi access points, as cell sizes get smaller.
KolibriFly
Still, I guess if the end result is functional public phones and revenue to keep them around, it's not the worst tradeoff
grishka
In St Petersburg all payphones were made free for calls to local and mobile numbers around 5 years ago, but most of them disappeared since then.
notpushkin
I’ve seen some in Moscow, too, and I think actually every Rostelecom payphone is free now (something about the universal communication services project I guess). In Russian: https://www.company.rt.ru/projects/uus/
seb1204
Every time we walk past one I somehow get a prank call from my kids :-), I think it's great they are free.
thaumasiotes
In Shanghai there are some phone-booth-looking objects you can find on the sidewalk that advertise free wifi. I've never investigated how to use the free wifi, but presumably someone might.
zoom6628
You need to be mobile subscriber to that network or else pay per use e.g if booth is China Telecom then if you have CT mobile service the "hotspot" is bundled. If you are say a CMCC user then you can pay to use after registering.
It's modelled on the same way that HongKong pay phone booths from PCCW were setup a long time ago.
thaumasiotes
That's actually better than I expected, considering how the airport wifi in Pudong was impossible to use for non-Chinese. (There was a verification procedure involving something external...) I think that's changed now?
Still, if you're already subscribed to the mobile service, wifi on the sidewalk isn't worth much.
barbs
Yeah, plus compared to having to maintain and empty the change mechanisms or removing them all it was probably the cheaper option.
protocolture
Sad really, because I liked holding the flag button down before picking up the receiver, which displays OUT OF SERVICE until the receiver is lifted again.
I would find a bank of 3 busy payphones on a weekend, get 2 of them to display the message, and sit there with my mates laughing at the long line of payphone users.
Last I tried, this no longer worked on the free Telstra payphones. End of a mildly amusing prank era.
yusina
That's not a prank, it's just idiotic.
We all did stupid things when young, but most of us have by now realized that what they did wasn't actually funny.
rrr_oh_man
It's not about funny. I have observed it in dogs and young children. It's about taking action in the world and receiving (any) feedback that your actions have an impact. That's the origin of pranks, negging, playing. It's quite an important development step, imho.
protocolture
Its a lesson in human behaviour. And like all young people we were interested in what makes society tick. We were daring rogue anthropologists.
You get the 3 payphones.
If you have them all present the message, someone gets curious and lifts a handset, resolving the issue.
But if you disable only 2, everyone just lines up behind the working payphone. Its a repeatable experiment, one we performed everywhere we saw telstra payphones.
Apologies if you happen to be a disgruntled telstra payphone user.
wwarek
About "new life", reminded me of phone booths in UK being reused as defibrillation stations:
https://nerdist.com/article/uk-red-phone-booths-defibrillati...
jasoncartwright
Communities can 'adopt' them for £1. Other uses include libraries or food bank donation points.
https://business.bt.com/public-sector/street-hubs/adopt-a-ki...
KolibriFly
Beats letting them rot or turning them into novelty coffee stands. It's kinda cool how these relics are finding second lives in ways that actually help people
mmb
https://futel.net/ operates similar free public telephones in Portland, OR.
jt2190
From https://randtel.co/
> RandTel was started in 2023, inspired by Futel [1] and PhilTel [2].
dirtyhippiefree
Beat me to it.
Street Roots has had one for about a month on Burnside and Third.
sschueller
In Switzerland the payphones that remain (150 Telecabs 2000 [1]) all have free calling within Switzerland[2].
[1] https://img.nzz.ch/2014/04/14/1.18283856.1397466801.jpg
[2] https://www.swisscom.ch/de/about/news/2019/11/28-publifon.ht...
ale42
I'd really like to know if they're still around and where they are...
LittleNemoInS
They still are, you can find then on this website : https://www.apgsga.ch/apg-ecommerce-platform/apg-product-fin...
WarOnPrivacy
Operator: Dial 0
Is this still a thing? I haven't tried in years.
For a sec I thought if I knew his carrier I could answer that. But no; I have no idea if any telcos still do 0=Operator.
One of the phones said RanTel Operator: Dial 0. Backdrop?
natpalmer1776
I try this anytime I get tired of a phone tree, works about half the time. Useful trick I picked up from someone twice my age and has paid dividends in time saved.
WarOnPrivacy
> I try this anytime I get tired of a phone tree
You're thinking of a corp phone system. I'm wondering whether carriers still do operators. If you pick up your phone and dial 0, what do you get?
natpalmer1776
I get a pre-recorded message telling me how to perform a collect call and who to contact for help with my specific carrier
anovikov
It will certainly have a side effect of attracting bums. Just as park benches and other things people in the community tend to fight against, or even vandalise themselves to prevent them from becoming bum magnets.
KolibriFly
Cell service fails, batteries die, disasters happen... but a solar-powered rotary payphone? That's gonna ring through it all.
reginald78
I actually think these use cellular connections behind the scenes. It wasn't explicitly stated but when I watched a video there was a brief shot of a 4G modem.
AStonesThrow
The Brady Bunch, Season 1 Episode 9: "Sorry, Right Number"
Airdate: November 21, 1969
A huge phone bill prompts Mike to have a pay telephone installed to teach the kids a lesson in financial responsibility. His plan nearly backfires when he is forced to use the payphone to close a deal. Thankfully, his client has three teenagers of his own and understands Mike's situation and even installs a pay phone in his own home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Brady_Bunch_episod...
temp0826
I lived on Whidbey Island in Washington for a few years, and the quaintest thing (well, one of them, the whole island is just that) is the free payphones all over. I think only free for calls on the island but still.
shawn_w
Not a whole lot of them left on the island. I don't remember them ever being free but last time I used one was probably in the 90's.
Molitor5901
Wow! The resource load from Core77.com's website is unusually high and I can't quite figure out why. Ublock is working overtime.
schobi
I like the idea and the looks of it, but do they get any usage (beyond the test calls)?
It will be hard to overcome a lot of gaps in education
- where is a phone (he seems to have signs "phone inside"), what kind of device am I even looking for, visually?
- is this operational? did someone forget this on the wall?
- how do you operate the dial?
- do you even remember a phone number that is useful now? When the smartphone suddenly stops working?
Sadly, I would probably score 2/4 and not rely on it.
WarOnPrivacy
If I pointed my kids at one of those phones and said - Go see that that thing does. They would.
Without an adult to prompt them, I think most kids would. As long as their ambition hasn't been conditioned away.
franga2000
I worked as a tech on an art project involving a phone booth on a public square and every few hours I was there I'd see some children go in and try to talk. There were two unused booths, so on a few occasions I saw sibling go into them and "talk" to each other. The phones weren't plugged in, but my plan for this year is to set up an intercom between them. I also saw a lot of parent take their kids up to the booths and tell them about what it was like when we didn't have phones in our pockets.
cormorant
> do they get any usage (beyond the test calls)?
Usage stats: https://randtel.co/stats.html
layer8
Regarding the first one, the app icon of the phone app on smartphones still depicts a telephone receiver, so that should look somewhat familiar.
WalterBright
I dial important numbers by hand so that I remember them when I don't have my phone with me.
bombcar
I may forget everything but I’ll always remember 867-5309
irrational
> do you even remember a phone number that is useful now?
This is the one that would get me. Back in the 1980s and 90s I had lots of phone numbers memorized, now I don’t even know my wife’s phone number.
WarOnPrivacy
> Back in the 1980s and 90s I had lots of phone numbers memorized,
> now I don’t even know my wife’s phone number.
I think this is all of us who were born before the Reagan admin.
For my part, I combined both things you brought up. I have 10 numbers that are ~same as the ones I grew up with and they forward to the family phones (50¢ea/mo, MVNO)
bombcar
When I realized the only practical numbers I knew were my home phone number from 1995 and my cell, I made it a point to memorize my wife’s.
cafard
I have one friend's telephone number memorized, but he has had it for 40-plus years. My wife's and my son's? Well, they are stored on my phone.
onlygoose
When traveling, I always try to use local payphones and call friends or just myself. Maybe the name is not quite apt because the phone service is often provided for free.
KolibriFly
That's such a cool little travel ritual... kinda like sending yourself a postcard, but more ephemeral
Australia's primary operator of payphones made them all free a couple of years ago. More as a way to keep them as advertising space than any particular good-will gesture.