LinkNYC: Trying Again To Make Some Phone Calls

Last week I posted a story summarizing my attempts to make free phone calls through LinkNYC devices. Links have been touted as the “payphone of the future” and one of the product’s marquee features is its ability to make free phone calls within the U.S.

From my usage it seems like this so-called “ability” to make phone calls has actually become more of a possibility. As many if not more than half of my attempts to make phone calls using Links did not succeed. In most of those cases messages on the LinkNYC devices made it appear the calls went through when they did not.

A few days ago I made another try at this, this time dictating some speech-to-text notes about my experience along the way.

37th Street and 3rd Avenue: This device has not been able to make a phone call for a long time. It’s been months, maybe even a year. It makes a nice ticking/clicking noise when I dial a phone number but nothing else happens.
A strange thing happened with the Link at 41st Street at 3rd Avenue. I dialed a phone number and the tablet completely shut down. The screen went dark. I passed by again a half hour later and the tablet was still turned off. Not to worry, though, ads on the giant 55-inch screens were still being served!
The Link outside of the D’Agostino’s at 35th Street and 3rd Avenue did not complete a phone call after five attempts. As with other Links the indications that appeared on the screen might make you think the call had connected but it did not.
Outside Jackson Hole on 35th Street: This device connected after I dialed a number three times.
After five attempts I gave up trying to make a call from the Link outside of the Habitat Pharmacy on 35th Street and 3rd Avenue.
The Link at 33rd Street and 3rd Avenue actually connected on the first attempt. Hooray for the brave new world.
The Link at 31st Street and Third Avenue, on the other hand, did not connect after five attempts. That one used to work. I remember because this was the device where I first noticed how clearly a passer-by can hear both sides of a conversation taking place over a LinkNYC device. From maybe 20 feet away I saw and overheard (involuntarily, I might add) a woman talking about her daughter, who was 33 years old, unemployed, and living in California.
30th Street and Third Avenue outside Bagel Café: Four or five tries to make a phone call, no joy.
I neglected to take note of the Links with non-working tablets or which displayed error messages. There were several of those.
There is an individual I see all over town. This day he was on Third Avenue but I saw him on Eighth Avenue last week, and 57th Street another time. He slouches against these devices, and it appears he stays there for hours. All I ever see him looking at is a screen of MTA transit updates.
The Slouch is becoming the signature profile of a LinkNYC user. In the encampment days the LinkNYC user profile was that of people sitting on milk crates or recliner chairs.
Speaking of Eighth Avenue I neglected to mention in last week’s story that at one point four Links in a row, and at least 7 total, returned a message saying “Vonage Mobile cannot connect to the Internet.” Other apps on these devices were able to access the Internet. I do not know if Vonage’s software is the culprit in this phone failure, if LinkNYC’s VoIP network has capacity issues, or what explains the Links’ shoddy record in actually connecting phone calls.
Access to the “One Ones” from Links is still limited. 311 and 411 seem to work but others do not. Of particular note: The 711 Telecommunications Relay Service is blocked, even though FCC rules mandate that VoIP providers “must offer 711 dialing service.”
811, the “call before you dig” number, is not reachable from Links.
511, the all-in-one traffic and transit hotline, is also blocked on LinkNYC, though you should be able to get to it through its direct number: 888-465-1169.
I did not try to dial 911 but it would be troubling if connecting to emergency services through LinkNYC was as much a matter of luck as making regular phone calls.
211’s purpose is not the same from one phone to the next. From some payphones you would dial 211 to report a defective payphone or that you had deposited a coin and were unable to get it back. Nationwide 211 is a telephone hotline established by the United Way to provide a variety of counseling and community resources. 211, whatever its purpose might be, cannot be reached via LinkNYC.
I expected to end this list by concluding that all the above-mentioned resources are reachable from the old-fashioned payphones of the past, not from the “payphone of the future”. But a quick bit of legwork reveals that this is not true. There are four Citybridge-owned payphones within walking distance of the spot on which I am writing this. From those phones the 311 non-emergency service was reachable. 411 was also reachable but, somewhat interestingly, an automated voice requested 50¢ to complete the call. 411 is a free call from LinkNYC devices but not from Citybridge’s payphones.
Based on my admittedly limited testing of only 4 payphones it seems that all the other resources mentioned above are no longer accessible from Citybridge’s payphones, even the FCC-mandated 711 Telecommunications Relay Service.

As for Links, people really are using those things. LinkNYC users do not necessarily fit the profile of the glamorous, world-weary hi-tech traveler that Citybridge would like us to believe. But from my observations the LinkNYC user base is unquestionably diverse. Here are some pictures, showing the slouchers, the sleepers, the young, the old, and all sorts in between:

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