This clamshell payphone at the corner of Broadway and St. James Place in Elmhurst, Queens, still bears signage from when it was owned by Van Wagner, the display advertising company that acquired a portion of Verizon’s payphone assets after the telecom company exited the business.Van Wagner was later acquired by Outfront Media, another display advertising company with no interest in payphones.

Van Wagner’s phones were acquired by Citybridge LLC, the consortium of tech and advertising companies that is expected to place Link devices throughout the five boroughs, essentially replacing traditional payphones such as this with multipurpose digital depots offering free WiFi and other services — including the ability to make free phone calls within the United States.

Virtually every outdoor payphone on New York City sidewalks is owned by Citybridge now, despite lingering signage such as this which would seem to indicate otherwise. It’s a little blurry but click through for larger, more legible version.

Signage like this goes unread and unnoticed by most New Yorkers, even those who use payphones regularly. This placard is intended to provide rate information and long-distance options for reaching operators to make person-to-person or collect calls. Contact information for the payphones owner, for the company that carries the calls, and the FCC is required to be clearly visible and unobstructed.

In rare cases this information is not present. These phones are to be avoided for anything of substance, as it is impossible to know who might be listening or what charges might be incurred for person-to-person dialing or collect calls. These so-called ROGUE PAYPHONES are rare but still pop up now and again, as we learned from my recent rogue payphone sighting in Brooklyn.