The last standing public payphone in NYC was removed on Monday. City Officials bid farewell to the phone booth as a crane ripped it off the Manhattan sidewalk.
Farewell, Payphone
Monday marked the end of the iconic New York City payphone system as the last standing one was removed from Time Square Street. City officials bid farewell to the coin-operated payphone as a crane ripped it from the sidewalk at Seventh Avenue and West 50th Street. It also marks the completion of the decade-long effort of replacing outdated technology with LinkNYC kiosks. A kiosk offers free WiFi, mobile device charging, and domestic calling, in addition to 911 and 311 access.
Mark Levine stated that he hopes the new alternative to payphones will make technology more accessible for New Yorkers. Levine is the President of Manhattan Borough. “I won’t miss all the dead dial tones. But gotta say I felt a twinge of nostalgia seeing it go,” he tweeted.
The Midtown payphone will be sent to the Museum of the City of New York as a relic of the times before cellphones became widely used. The exhibit, “Analog City: NYC B.C. (Before Computers),” opened just last Friday.
LinkNYC kiosk marks a new beginning for NYC
In 2014, Under Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City put out a request for proposals to replace payphones with new infrastructure. CityBridge’s proposal for building a LinkNYC system was chosen and they started swapping out old payphones in 2016. By 2020, the city was successful in sending most of the outdated technology to the scrapyard.
By 2020, the city administration was successful in removing over 7,500 public phones and replacing them with 2,000 LinkNYC kiosks.
However, a few private payphones still exist, and four enclosed phone booths have been permanently saved from removal along West End Avenue on the Upper West Side.