Payphone Locator for Hoboken, New Jersey

I spent a few hours in Hoboken, NJ, to get away for an afternoon and maybe scout out payphones in that waterfront town. Expecting nothing I was surprised to find numerous remains of devices variously known as the “Web Payphone” or the “Internet Payphone”, a product of TCC Teleplex that first appeared on the streets of New York in 2002. Here is what is left of one such device at the corner of River and Newark Streets:

Metrotel/TCC Teleplex Web Payphone Kiosk

This particular device does not work, not even for emergency calls to 911. This was true for most of the Web Payphones I spotted in Hoboken. I did find one or two of these units that seemed to have a pulse, apparently making it possible to call 911. Other than that these things are just hulking eyesores earning revenue from the advertising panels.

Followup research on Hoboken’s surprising quantity of payphones turned up an interesting resource. This map of Hoboken payphone locations, from HobokenNJ.gov, appears to be current as of late 2016, and should remain so until September 17, 2018.

I found the map interesting simply because not very many cities publish this kind of information, despite the obvious fact that it might actually be useful to people for disaster planning and the like. I cannot say if this map is 100% accurate but from what I saw it looks like payphones were never installed at the “approved” locations. These payphones are expected to remain in place until the city’s contract with Metrotel Communications, the payphone service provider, expires next year. It remains to be seen what might replace them (if anything) but talk is that some kind of “Internet of Things” kiosks would be installed similar to what New Yorkers are getting from the LinkNYC program.

Hoboken’s payphone population includes a number of these web payphones as well as standard touchtone phones. This map does not distinguish what type of device is present at each location. Most of the traditional payphones actually worked but only for local calls. I could not call out to my (212) area code number from any of Hoboken’s payphones.

According to postings at Hoboken411 these enclosure started showing up in 2006, but were not filled with actual web payphone devices until a year later. My guess is that they actually worked until a couple of years ago. From 2002 until about 2015 there were dozens of these devices around New York City, from which these devices appear to have been transplanted. The franchise assignments and wording of the informational poster inside these booths today does not mention Hoboken, only New York.

These devices offered access to the open Internet. Certain sites, such as weather.com and local Hoboken sites were whitelisted for all to use, while access to the rest of the web was available at a rate of 25¢ per minute. It would be interesting to know how successful these devices were in terms of usage.

Take a closer look at the other features these devices used to offer:

The coin slot accepted nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins.

You could also pay by credit card. Internet access was 25¢/minute.

The trackball was used to direct the pointer on the computer screen.

The web camera could be used to send video e-mails, though it is not clear if that service was ever activated.

The QWERTY keyboard might have been the first ever to have a .WWW and a .COM button.

I assume they programmed the REDIAL button smartly enough to not allow someone to redial the number a previous customer had dialed.

Metrotel, a long time regional payphone service provider, appears to own the kiosks and the touchtone payphones but the Web Payphones are branded as property of TCC Teleplex. I had heard from sources in the business that Teleplex was no longer an ongoing concern. Today I find their web site is still alive, albeit not directly accessible to me on account of it being flagged as a “Dangerous Website” by Norton’s frequently inaccurate security software.

To avoid trouble I accessed the Teleplex website using the Lynx text-only web browser. Either I misunderstood or my source who told me the company had folded was wrong. The TCC Teleplex website, at least, has a recent posting on the value of landline communications networks in large scale emergencies. The company was, along with several other independent companies, kicked out of doing business in New York City. This was done to allow the Google-backed CityBridge monopoly to replace the city’s outdoor payphones with LinkNYC multimedia kiosks. But if the presence of their company name on these kiosks in Hoboken and their website activity mean anything then TCC Teleplex might still be in business. I tried to call the numbers for both Metrotel and TCC Teleplex as they appear on these kiosks. Both numbers are out of service.

Advertising panels on Hoboken’s payphone kiosks appear to be actively sold by Outfront Media (née CBS Outdoor Media, née Van Wagner) but none of the Web Payphones I encountered offer any Internet or WiFi services described on the kiosks’ signage.