Rogue Payphone Sighting
From 100 feet away I saw something almost unbelievable: A newly installed clamshell payphone, absent any advertising panels. This is the year 2017, right?
StreetMessages.com: The Domain Name That Got Away
An abandoned payphone outside the abandoned headquarters for StreetMessages.com provided an amusing antidote to a fresh appearance of that defunct web site address on an NYC payphone.
Happy New Year From The Payphone Project
It was a rough holiday week around here. The Payphone Project and all my other web sites got knocked offline, some for a couple of days others for a couple of weeks. The coast seems clear now.
A Rockefeller Center Payphone User Revisited
A strange and what seemed at first to be an eerie coincidence occurred on Twitter the other night.
This “Free Wi-Fi Payphone” is a Portal to Nowhere.
Phantom vestiges of a 2012 program to equip NYC's payphones with free WiFi still linger on city streets.
Christmas Music Heard Through a Steinway Street Payphone
I fed $3.75 into a Steinway Street payphone to record the Christmas music played over loudspeakers on that venue. Some of it was actually audible.
Those new outdoor phone booths are so doggone handy …
The advertisement below appeared in the August 6, 1957, edition the Panama City News-Herald. It appeared in numerous publications nationwide. Cutesy ads like this promoted the expansion of Bell telephone booths throughout the 1950s. doggone… “It’s a dog’s life, all right. Waiting while she talks. Can’t blame her much, though. Those new outdoor phone booths…
Putting the “UG” in UGLY. LinkNYC Begins its Raid of Woodside, Queens.
Uglyass LinkNYC Monoliths Are Uglifying the Already Non-Beautiful Stretch of Queens Boulevard in Woodside, Queens.
Vandals To All Who Care: “We Need More Pay Phones”
There is nothing funny about a missing person poster. But I had to laugh when I saw that someone used one such sign to share their thoughts on a matter near and dear to me, and perhaps to readers of this web site.
NBC’s I-Team on LinkNYC: Broken Promises
NBC New York's I-Team claims Brooklyn is a "digital desert." Who knew? Journalism at its finest... not.
Is LinkNYC Coming to Times Square?
The sudden absence of payphones at Times Square suggests that Links are coming. Does the advertising-engulfed Times Square need this? Does anybody?
CityBridge’s LinkNYC Program Takes a Blow
As a Telebeam lawsuit comes back to haunt CityBridge it may behoove regulators to consider the wisdom of granting a monopoly franchise to a company hawking a "BETA" product.
LinkNYC Customer Urinating on the Street
I and other Starbucks customers watched yesterday as a LinkNYC customer urinated onto the street. Scenes like this have come to be expected wherever Links are found. Nevertheless CityBridge is full steam ahead in placing its "payphone of the future" every 50 feet.
A Times Square Payphone’s Unique Memorial
Whoever removed the payphone from this wall at the Times Square subway station seems to have done so with a sense of humor.
An Amazing New York City Phone Booth Photo
The date was February 4, 1978. Why was fashion designer Calvin Klein standing in a New York City phone booth with $100,000 in cash?
Abandoned NYTEL Payphones. Woodside, Queens.
This pair of abandoned payphones outside a Woodside car wash were owned by NYTEL, a company that made most of its money from pre-paid calling cards.
LinkNYC Arrives in Queens at IPANY’s Former Stomping Ground.
If their quantity Third Avenue is any indication we should expect to see hundreds of Links up and down Queens Boulevard, as far as they eye can squint.
Grand Central Subway Station – No Working Payphones
There are only two payphones left on the upper level of the Grand Central subway station. Neither one works.
Photographing LinkNYC Users Has Become a Niche Fascination
New Yorkers seem to regard the growing number of LinkNYC encampments as anything from adorable to terrifying.
Tesla, Thomas, Thurber. “Phone Booth”, by Ariana Kelly.
The Payphone Project finds itself in good company in the index to Ariana Kelly's book "Phone Booth".
Using a LinkNYC Device for Free Phone Calls
If you are soft spoken or simply unwilling to scream your conversations into public space then LinkNYC's free phone call feature might not be for you.
LinkNYC Revisited, and Reconsidered
When Links first appeared I was happy to give them half a chance on æsthetic merit. But their numbers greedily increased. They are becoming a caricature of themselves, a ludicrous army of blinking, blistering eyesores.
Pay Phone Strangulation is Real. Very Real.
Talk about phone booth fighting. This Associated Press story from 1984 makes a common payphone sound like a savage murderer.
Was There Ever a Payphone On Nicasio Reservoir?
For 50 years the Benner-Nawman company made phone booths and payphone gear they said "may take a mauling but you can keep on calling." But did they really have a payphone in the middle of California's Nicasio Reservoir?
Payphone Down. Broadway in Astoria.
This Citybridge payphone suffered a fatal blow last week. Today all traces of this payphone are gone.
LinkNYC: Your New Homeless Office?
Citybridge's new LinkNYC devices have become magnets for loiterers of all stripes.
Regards from Telenor, the Norwegian Phone Company
Nortel, the largest phone company in Norway, has preserved about 100 of its classic red phone boxes. There used to be over 6000 such "little red houses" in use throughout the country.
Trump Tower Payphone: Still No Dial Tone
The only payphone at the Trump Tower still does not work. Will it ever? Prrrrobably not.