Pay phones to be reconstructed to a new free public wifi hotspots was recently proposed in the city of New York. The request was issued in response to the aging public pay phones that are currently not in use and are deteriorating due to the rise of the mobile phone market. The proposal involves a citywide revamp of pay phones that will provide free wifi networks across the metropolis.
The petition for the old pay phones revamp was started by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications who is actively asking aid for the project. The main goal for the this undertaking involves reconstructing more than 7,300 pay phones across all the five boroughs of the city into an internet enable hotspot.
The plan of the proposal is to provide free wifi services anywhere within 85 feet from each upgraded facility and with added features that will still allow people to call 911 and 311 on the pay phones. In terms of financing this project, the city plans to acquire funds generated from ad revenues.
The Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, said in a statement, "For Years, the question was, 'What to do with payphones?' and now we have an answer. By using a historic part of New York;s street fabric, we can significantly enhance public availability of increasingly-vital broadband access, invite new and innovative digital services, and increase revenue to the city - all at absolutely no cost to taxpayers."
Designers were requested to look for solutions that will make use and update the deteriorating call stands in 2013, following the offered made by the City of New York as a challenge to reinvent the payphones. According to Gizmodo, all of the 125 submissions were not close to providing the solution.
An estimated $17.5 million a year will be the annul budget for operating and maintaining approximately 10,000 public communications facilities that will be installed throughout the city pay phones.
