Trend.AZ reports: Baku Telephone Communications Production Association of the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry began work on updating payphone services, the Ministry Spokesman Mushfig Amirov told Trend on Thursday. Read more at Trend.AZ
I have been cutting the noise out of my life. The mental noise of interactive distraction, or “interstraction.” I rarely carry a cell phone any more, and I may be ready to give up on the device altogether. At first it made me fidgety. I frequently reached for the multi-distractional smart phone out of habit,…
A couple of weeks ago, prior to the more significant arrival of Hurricane Irene, NYC and other areas experienced a mild earthquake, one which rattled nerves more than anything else, but which caused genuine concern in the early moments following its arrival. I feel a little left out of the incident. I felt nothing. No…
I spotted this charming short story in the December, 1891, issue of "The Etude" magazine. This is not about payphones, but it comes from a time when the telephone was still considered mysterious and magical, and the lines lightly used.
There is a history between me and the Minolta Maxxum film SLR I carry around. Once in a while I use the old film camera to get pictures of payphones. Imagine that.
Brookfield Now reports on payphone scammers Colin Nordstrom and Jeff Frost: “Payphones owned by Frost, 53, and Nordstrom, 48, were programmed to autodial toll-free telephone numbers and to navigate automated menus long enough to collect a fee of nearly 50 cents from the holders of those phone numbers. Federal Communication Commission regulations stipulate that payphone…
A globe-trotting friend sent this picture of an ecclesiastical-looking phone booth at Harrods in London. To me this looks like a cross between a phone booth and a mausoleum. Maybe it’s a direct link to Dial-a-Prayer?
I spotted this payphone in October (on 10/10/2010, to be exact). Something tells me that when I pass this spot again this payphone hulk so ignominiously suffocating under a plastic bag will be gone. Payphones like this, stuffed into alleyways and in the free spaces between buildings, are increasingly hard to find. I hope to…
I spotted this picture last week at the Museum of Modern Art. The photo, by Helen Levitt, is called “New York, 1971.” This gentleman’s behaviour, in which he casually smokes a cigarette whilst perhaps waiting for a call, seems to embody that of the Payphone Hog, that nuisance of earlier generations who monopolized these public…
This rugged Verizon payphone worked perfectly after being nearly buried in snow during the great blizzard of 2010, the 6th-largest storm on record for NYC. With the new year comes change to the payphone landscape of New York City. Prepare to see fewer Verizon payphones on New York City streets, as they will be replaced.…
From Lenny (1974), starring Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce and Valerie Perrin as his wife/ex-wife Honey. In this scene Honey calls collect from a payphone to tell Lenny that she has some good, if oft-repeated news, and to ask for money. Lenny promises to send as much money as he can, and he tells Honey…
"We might not make our fortune, but we're going to provide payphones to those that need them for years to come."
Payphones on Television, in Movies, and in Print, at PayphonePictures.com.
What is the future of the neighborhood payphone, unadorned by advertising, its survival depending entirely on paid usage?
Possibly the most famous phone booth scene in all moviedom, this screengrab from Hitchcock's "The Birds" shows a three-slot rotary dial payphone inside a phone booth that is soon pummeled -- pummeled -- by birds.
MPNnow.com reports: “Town Supervisor Ted Fafinski recently learned that he has lost the last hope of sparing the Verizon payphone by having it declared a Public Interest Payphone by the state’s Public Service Commission. While the state believed the phone met the criteria for the designation because it fills a public safety need, no private…
The Payphone Project spotted a phantom Bell Atlantic sign, lurking high over the garage door of an auto body shop.
I started collecting sounds of payphones, and I shall begin sharing this ongoing collection with a signal rarely-heard today: the chirping, synthetic sound of a ringing payphone. Click to listen: An interesting thing about this particular payphone heard in this sample is that it accepts incoming calls, but with a catch: the person who answers…
MPNnow.com reports on Farmington, NY’s, battle to keep Verizon from taking its payphone away: “‘My biggest concern is someone getting hurt, over in the park on a weekend, who doesn’t have a cell phone,’ said Ted Fafinski, Farmington town supervisor. A lot of parents won’t let their kids have their cell phones on hand while…