New York Payphones A Thing Of The Past? City Removes Last One Ever
The last-ever working public payphone was removed Monday from a New York City street, ending an era of an iconic symbol of the city before cell phones and new technology slowly made them obsolete
The last payphone booth stood on 7th Avenue. It was picked up by a crane and truck to be moved to the Museum of the City of New York to be a part of its exhibit that looks back at life before computers.
"Just like we transitioned from the horse and buggy to the automobile and from the automobile to the airplane, the digital evolution has progressed from payphones to high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks to meet the demands of our rapidly changing daily communications needs," Commissioner of the Office of Technology and Innovation Matthew Fraser said in a press release.
"As a native New Yorker, saying goodbye to the last street payphone is bittersweet because of the prominent place they've held in the city's physical landscape for decades," Fraser said.
The removal of all payphone booths began in 2015 and were replaced by LinkNYC kiosks developed by CityBridge. The new kiosks offer free phone calls, WiFi and phone charging. LinkNYC is soon set to offer 5G service as well.
There are currently around 1,900 LinkNYC kiosks in New York City, according to a map from the company.
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