How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015)

Re:How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) by Daniel_sk on Thursday January 02, 2020 @07:18AM (#21934786)

I was surprised there are so many of them in US, at least when I was in California. But that's also probably because there was little or no cell phone coverage outside of the cities where we went. Most countries in EU have an almost complete cell network coverage including remote areas.

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Re:How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) by jzwinck on Thursday January 02, 2020 @07:36AM (#21934875)

In cities such as New York the payphones are not really used for placing calls. Their primary function is as a substrate for advertising. No amount of money can buy ad space in some of the best payphone locations.

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Re:How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) by technothrasher on Thursday January 02, 2020 @12:57PM (#21937816)

In New York, most of the pay phones have been replaced with "LinkNYC" kiosks, which provide free WiFi, charging, tourist info, and yes... actual phone calls.

(As well as still providing advertising space. Always with the advertising.)

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Re:How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) by Terretta on Thursday January 02, 2020 @11:19PM (#21943118)

In other words, they provide basecamps for panhandlers.

Installations up and down 7th Ave or Broadway, for instance, are typically abutted by a kind of cardboard picnic blanket spread, covered with makeshift bags of belongings along with the pan handler’s signage and pan.

The mendicant roosts there with tablet and phone plugged in for juice, watching YouTube played over the WiFi.

Some stores have taken to piling the day’s trash bags around the base instead, before someone posts up.

I’m curious who thought these wouldn’t turn out co-opted by panhandlers camping or as a pole to pile refuse around — I’m not sure which setup is a less appetizing context for advertising!

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Re:How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) by mlrtime on Thursday January 02, 2020 @08:30AM (#21935167)

and urinals...

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Re:How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) by chasd00 on Thursday January 02, 2020 @09:13AM (#21935453)

and for drunks to beat on. There use to be a handful in an art/music neighborhood here in Dallas (Deep Ellum) and they were always bent and beat to hell.

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Re:How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) by dangerlibrary on Thursday January 02, 2020 @10:17AM (#21935993)

"Remote" means something very different in West Texas, Montana, and many other places in the U.S. than it does basically anywhere in Europe.

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