citybridge – The Payphone Project

Manhattan’s Last Outdoor Phone Booths: What’s The Deal?

the payphone project — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 18:27:26 +0000

One of the more oddball moves by the CityBridge consortium was its replacement of Manhattan's classic American Airlight style phone booths with Canadian models. Let's look at them.

StreetMessages.com: The Domain Name That Got Away

the payphone project — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 21:43:28 +0000

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.

Rare Sighting: Payphone Repairman

the payphone project — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 17:31:57 +0000

I spotted something rare. A public pay telephone repairman at work, keeping New York City's payphones safe and sanitary.

Talking on the Telebeam — But For How Much Longer?

the payphone project — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 20:17:52 +0000

People still use payphones. I spotted this woman talking on a Telebeam payphone today. Telebeam's continued existence, however, may be short-lived, as the CityBridge monopoly inches closer to putting the company out of business.

Another Classy LinkNYC Customer

the payphone project — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 18:15:17 +0000

With about 300 of an expected 10,000 units installed and activated the rollout of LinkNYC is starting to feel like a slow-moving plague of technological "Smart City" pollution.

LinkNYC Revisited, and Reconsidered

the payphone project — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:51:03 +0000

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.

LinkNYC’s GSOD, and the Infrastructure Underneath.

the payphone project — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 19:38:45 +0000

If this kind of infrastructure interests you then feast your eyes on the underlying foundation of a LinkNYC device. Links are replacing outdoor public pay telephones throughout New York, with the promise from CityBridge (the company that makes them) that they would use elements of the payphones' pre-existing infrastructure.

Payphone Down. Broadway in Astoria.

the payphone project — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 16:11:44 +0000

This Citybridge payphone suffered a fatal blow last week. Today all traces of this payphone are gone.

Link.NYC’s Free Phone Calls: You Get What You Pay For

the payphone project — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 20:38:44 +0000

I have used CityBridge’s Link devices a number of times since they went into active service a few weeks ago. My primary interest has been their ability to make phone calls. It turns out the “free phone calls” feature is worth about what I paid to use it.

718-271-9306. Broadway & St. James Avenue. Elmhurst, Queens.

the payphone project — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 18:19:48 +0000

This clamshell payphone at the corner of Broadway and St. James Place in Elmhurst, Queens, still bears signage from when it was owned by Van Wagner, the display advertising company that acquired a portion of Verizon’s payphone assets after the telecom company exited the business.Van Wagner was later acquired by Outfront Media, another display advertising company with…

Shroud of a Link: Citybridge Meets Its Deadline. Sort Of.

the payphone project — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 03:45:16 +0000

This mysteriously shrouded rectangle is all we get to see for now of the first Links, the free WiFi hotspots and multipurpose digital depots expected to replace thousands of NYC's outdoor payphones.

The Missing Links: What Will They Really Look Like?

the payphone project — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:00:27 +0000

Let me be the first to say it: Citybridge's Link devices look pretty flippin' ugly. Thousands of these hulkish, intrusive slabs of advertising, should they actually invade city streets in such quantities as promised, would make today's payphone enclosures look inconspicuous and even charming by comparison.

61st St. and Roosevelt Ave. Woodside, Queens 718-429-8216 Van Wagner, LLC. Photo by David Moore.

the payphone project — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:28:45 +0000

Another phone similar in style to this one (somewhat unusually embedded in a blue wooden box) used to exist nearby in Woodside, at the Carl Sohncke Square. For those interested in such things the Van Wagner company whose name appears on this payphone no longer exists. Van Wagner was acquired by CBS Outdoor Media a…

Citybridge Rising: The Missing Links

the payphone project — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 23:20:44 +0000

Citybridge, the consortium of telecom and advertising companies awarded a monopoly franchise to replace New York City’s outdoor public pay telephones with multipurpose “Links”, has taken its first concrete steps in establishing itself as king of the curbside payphone. One by one the company has placed Citybridge-branded informational placards on hundreds, perhaps thousands of payphones…