New York City removes the last payphone from service

New York City removes the last payphone from service


Workers remove the final New York City payphone near Seventh Avenue and 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on May 23, 2022.

Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images

It’s the end of an era: New York City removed its last public payphone on Monday.

The boxy enclosures were once an iconic symbol across the city. But the rise of cellphones made the booths obsolete.

The effort to replace public pay telephones across the city kicked off in 2014 when the de Blasio administration solicited proposals to reimagine the offering, the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation said in a news release.

Officials selected CityBridge to develop and operate LinkNYC kiosks, which offer services such as free phone calls, Wi-Fi and device charging. The city began removing street payphones in 2015 to replace them with the LinkNYC kiosks.

There are nearly 2,000 kiosks across the city, according to a map from LinkNYC.

“Just like we transitioned from the horse and buggy to the automobile and from the automobile to the airplane, the digital evolution has progressed from payphones to high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks to meet the demands of our rapidly changing daily communications needs,” Commissioner Matthew Fraser said in the release.

The last public pay telephone will be displayed at the Museum of the City of New York as part of an exhibit looking back at life in the city before computers.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.



Source

China Nvidia rival Cambricon adds to  billion rally with 4,000% revenue jump
Technology

China Nvidia rival Cambricon adds to $40 billion rally with 4,000% revenue jump

China is focusing on large language models in the artificial intelligence space. Blackdovfx | Istock | Getty Images Chinese semiconductor firm Cambricon posted record profit in the first half of the year underscoring how local challengers to Nvidia are gaining traction as Beijing looks to boost its domestic industry. Cambricon is among a plethora of […]

Read More
Microsoft had police remove protesters who stormed office over work with Israeli military
Technology

Microsoft had police remove protesters who stormed office over work with Israeli military

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft Corp., at the Web Summit conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. The annual conference gathers key industry figures in technology. James MacDonald | Bloomberg | Getty Images Microsoft asked police to remove people who improperly entered a building at its headquarters in protest of the […]

Read More
Okta raises forecast as CEO says economic conditions were ‘better than we thought’
Technology

Okta raises forecast as CEO says economic conditions were ‘better than we thought’

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon appears on CNBC in September 2018. Anjali Sundaram | CNBC Okta shares rose 4% in extended trading on Tuesday after the identity software maker reported fiscal results that exceeded Wall Street projections. Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus: Earnings per share: 91 cents adjusted vs. 84 cents […]

Read More