Mark Dank of Springfield is reintroducing society to the pay phone through PhilTel, a project that brings them to Philadelphia neighborhoods for free internet calling, writes Harold Brubaker for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Some of the people in the community around this project, they really like the idea of an old pay phone,” Dank said. “They like the aesthetics of it. When it comes down to it, a pay phone is a ruggedized, hardened device. It’s a piece of urban furniture that you can put on the street.”
About 97 percent of the population owns cell phones, so pay phones have largely disappeared.
There are about 50 left in Philadelphia. In the 1990s, there were 4,800.
Dank is a 31-year-old software engineer. He’s fascinated by pay phones as part of a larger interest in hidden urban networks and infrastructure for electric, steam, water or communications.
“I like complex systems, seeing how everything works together,” Dank said.
The first PhilTel phone will go in Dec. 17 at Iffy Books, on the third floor of a building at 319 N. 11th Street.
It will test people’s reactions to it and what kind of usage it gets.
Read more about the PhilTel phones at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
New York City removes last public pay phone.
