Queensbridge Payphones Revisited

I know. We’ve been here before. But I revisited the Queensbridge payphones last week to get them on video, and found that a lot had changed since I last visited, especially on the first one. Comments below.

Two Janus-style payphones stand outside the Queensbridge Houses at 12th Street and 40th Avenue.

These have a little of everything, especially the first one. Layers of graffiti, a faint echo of the “WE NEED MORE PAY PHONES” vandal, and a few phone numbers, one of which checks out to be the toll-free number for WiMacTel, a California-based payphone service provider (and diversified telco) with, as far as I know, zero presence in New York, at least not in public pay telephones.

I wouldn’t know if WiMacTel is in the prison payphone circuit here, but whatever the case it’s pretty strange to see its name and number scrawled onto a PTS (Pacific Telemanagement Services) payphone.

If it’s an inside joke of some sort I would be among the very few who got it.

If WiMacTel is in the prison payphone scene in New York maybe it means someone at Queensbridge did time, made calls through WiMacTel payphones, and now thinks all payphones are WiMacTel. I don’t know.

Both phones work but call quality from them is garbage. 718-784-8935 and 718-729-9638.