New York City is about to remove dozens of public pay phones, starting with ones in Hell's Kitchen, but eventually, most of the city's 3,000 pay phones will be removed by the end of the year.
In a letter to City Speaker Corey Johnson, NYC Department of Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Jessica Tisch says she has directed CityBridge, the company that operates and maintains LinkNYC and the majority of public pay phones, to remove around 30 pay phones along 9th Avenue.
The first phones to be removed will be the ones between 38th and 45th Streets and some of them will be replaced with LinkNYC kiosks, CityBridge told NBC New York.
If you're feeling nostalgic for the old days without smartphones, and just want to live out your Superman/Clark Kent fantasy, there are four phone booths in the Upper West Side that will be maintained and provide free phone calls.
They are on West End Avenue around 66th Street, 90th Street and 100th Street, CityBridge said.
The number of pay phones started going down after the LinkNYC franchise went into effect in 2014. There used to be more than 6,000 public pay phones around the city's five boroughs, according to the DoITT.
While usage of pay phones have gone down, LinkNYC provides free calls as well as free access to 911, 311 and Wi-Fi.
