Instead, Wifi for everyone: New York dismantles the last phone booth

Instead Wifi for everyone
New York dismantles last phone booth

05/24/2022 10:54 am

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There were once thousands of public phones in New York. Now the last of its kind has been dismantled. She goes to the museum. The city is already providing a modern replacement.

In hardly any other city do residents stare at their smartphones as constantly as in New York. No wonder nobody was interested in the old pay phones anymore – there were once around 8,000 of these phones in the mega-city, but that’s all gone now. As “Bloombergreported, the last phone booth was dismantled on Monday. It was on a street near Times Square, which is in the heart of Manhattan — at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and West 50th Street.

Pictures showed how a towing crane loaded the open double cell and transported it away. According to “New York Post” it was actually still a coin device. According to “Bloomberg”, the phones have been gradually dismantled since 2015. A replacement should also be provided: so-called “LinksNYC” kiosks will be set up in the places. They offer free WiFi, You can also dial emergency calls and charge your smartphone there.

“End of an era,” tweeted Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. Now nobody has to rummage in their pockets for a quarter. “I won’t miss the dead dial tones, but I have to say it makes me nostalgic to see them go.” The local station “Fox 5” reports that the phones were still being used, even if the calls were falling.

No more yellow cells in Germany

On Twitter, someone asked where Superman would change into his costume – the superhero often used phone booths as a dressing room in the comics. Incidentally, there are said to be four more of these full-fledged telephone booths in New York. According to “CBS” but it is unclear whether they are still in operation. The phones that have now been removed were half-open devices. There are also said to be individual privately operated payphones on public property.

Public telephones have also become rare in Germany. The last yellow phone booth was dismantled in April 2019 – in St. Bartholomä am Königssee. At the time, Telekom announced that the houses would be dismantled if sales were less than 50 euros a month. Once there were more than 100,000 cells in Germany, in 2020 there should have been 16,000.

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