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The so-called “payphone of the future” has come and gone a number of times since the mid-1990s. AT&T’s Public Phone 2000 could be found at most major airports, along with garishly ugly contraptions such as the Atcom/Info Cyberbooth and TouchNet Internet Business Centers. Telco companies large and small produced a wide range of these now… Read more »

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Some years ago I noticed a newly installed payphone outside a coffee shop on Broadway in Astoria. Payphones, even 6 or 7 years ago when this occurred, were typically being removed from service, not placed anew. I picked up the handset of this Astoria payphone and wouldn’t you know it: No dial tone. Probably the… Read more »