“It’s the end of an era”, launches the site of the American television channel CBS News. The last phone booth in New York, which was at 7And Avenue, was withdrawn on Monday, May 23. The event attracted US media cameras.
“All over the world the arrival of mobile phones has made telephone booths disappear”, To explain CBS News. The structure should not end its existence in a cemetery of huts but in a city museum. A new exhibition must give pride of place to previous technologies the advent of computers.
Public telephones are still accessible in some factories and private properties in the city, but it was actually the last booth installed in the middle of the street.
The advent of wifi hotspots
“As a native New Yorker, saying goodbye to that last phone booth is bittersweet, because these objects have been staples of the urban landscape for decades,” said the head of the city’s technology and innovation office, Matthew Fraser. The latter added:
“In the same way we went from horse-drawn carriage to car, then from car to plane, digital technologies replaced telephone booths with high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks to meet new communication needs.“
The removal of the phone booths saw a breakthrough in New York in 2015, when they began to be replaced by kiosks as part of the LinkNYC project. These “Digital panels” allow you to charge a smartphone, connect to public wifi and log in easily city services.
