NYC to add 'smart screens' to phone booths

The city plans to unveil 32-inch “smart screens” with Internet connections next month inside 250 old phone booths throughout the five boroughs. The pilot program will replace crusty telephones that most New Yorkers wouldn’t touch with their bare hands. And the futuristic screens could eventually replace all of the city’s 12,800 outdoor pay phones, whose franchise contracts with the city expire in October 2014.

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Cool!

I was just talking about this at work last week. Potentially, I could honestly see it being cheaper in the long run.
Hopefully this will take off everywhere, after a successful run in the big NYC.

How will they vandalize proof them from spray-painted over and abuse?

reply to post by CALGARIAN


Dear CALGARIAN,

Will they also have facial recognition technology? I bet they will, so how can we make a call on a land line (that is protected from being tapped unlike cell phones)?

I'm sorry.. I shouldn't laugh at ignorance. I really shouldn't. Someone needs to take pity on the leaders of New York City that came up with and approved this brainstorm.

The Payphones are armored little vaults it would take a metal saw to get through..and for what? The handsets seemed to be as much a toy for stress relief as a device for communication.

So.....Now everyone gets a touch screen to mock them on a bad phone call or when a plain need to vandalize something comes over the local people. Someone would bypass almost everything else and seek out such a bright, shiny device for all kinds of bad things. I can see drunks attracted like a moth to a flame before ..christening..one for the night with .. well..

It just strikes me as a great idea in a movie like Demolition Man but a downright laughable disaster in the real world. This will be fun to check back on for stories!

Whats a phone booth?

Superman approves this change. He can check his Facebook while he changes into his tights.

Wait, we still have payphones in New York?