Payphone Hotspots?

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=582&ncid=582&e=2&u=/nm/20030509/wr_nm/telecoms_verizon_payphones_dc' target='_blank'>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...on_payphones_dc</a><br /><br /></div>Wow... this could truly revolutionize 802.11b usage to yet another level, and make better use of payphone booths (which I haven't used in at least a year in New York).<br /><br />"Verizon Communications wants to provide a new purpose for a declining business by using street corner pay telephones to wirelessly link its broadband customers to the Internet, President Larry Babbio said. At a Stevens Institute of Technology conference in New York on Friday, Babbio told attendees that Verizon would begin to put gear around pay phones that would allow laptop computer users to connect to the Internet via a wireless technology popularly known as Wi-Fi."

[Ed Hansberry]

Verizon customers? Forget that. anyone should be able to set up an account and then use it when traveling.

[Paragon]

Bell Canada has been experimenting with this in the Toronto area for a while. Seems to work good for those that I know, that have tried it.

dave

[Kevin Daly]

Nifty idea...but my cynical side immediately thinks of the way payphones (here at least) are popular with the "I'm an idiot, so let's find something to smash" set.
Still, if that could be avoided, it would be very cool...and by making payphone booths more useful as Janak points out, it would provide more of a rationale for installing and maintaining them in the first place, which would be good news for those without cell phones (or without coverage in a given place).

[Abba Zabba]

8O This sounds like a great idea especially fo those people in areas where there a vast amounts of pay phones. I think that this will jump start the now emerging wifi revolution. I would pay for this service as long as I don't need to be in a stationary position like T-mo/ starbucks. If they could figure some way for the wifi to switch like a cell phone does between towers but in this case phone booths that would be awesome. :mrgreen:

[bdegroodt]

I'm glad to see this. I've been looking at payphones and the newspaper vending machines for the last 2 years here in the city just wondering how they could be part of the "digital revolution." This is a great start and I'm excited to see it.

On the Verizon customers only, I happen to sell telecom "on the side" and my first guess is that Verizon is doing with this what they did with DSL. If you have DSL service through your local carrier, it's very hard to switch off service and I think the payphone pricing plan would be a similar issue (Or benefit if you're Verizon.). Telecoms are looking for every angle they can to increase their advantage over the other guy and this would be a pretty good one. It's also why Verizon is bundling DSL, local, long distance and mobile into one package (Which should have been done years ago.).

[GregWard]

If they could figure some way for the wifi to switch like a cell phone does between towers but in this case phone booths that would be awesome. :mrgreen:

If it barks like a Dog and wags it's tail like a Dog ... then it's a Dog - right?

Do we really need another cellphone system? I think WiFi in phone booths just seems to be a case of "cos I can" and no real thought behind it. At least Starbucks you can grab a coffee at the same time!!!!

Many of the phone booths here in London now have e-mail capability. But I have no idea how much they're used!

[Paragon]

If it barks like a Dog and wags it's tail like a Dog ... then it's a Dog - right?

Do we really need another cellphone system? I think WiFi in phone booths just seems to be a case of "cos I can" and no real thought behind it. At least Starbucks you can grab a coffee at the same time!!!!



if you look at it from a providers standpoint, then the answer is a very big yes!

up til recently i really didn't give wifi a chance of surviving long. as a consumer why do i want to jump back and forth between the two. why do i want to put up with all the hastle of having the proper account(s) for all this to work. the only reason i could think of that made it worthwhile was speed.

after listening to a technical director of a hotspot company speak, things became much clearer for me. if a provider...say t-mobile can offer it's normal cellular network to the vast amount of real estate, and put together wifi networks in the high density metro areas, and provide devices that can handoff between these networks seemlessly, they can then provide a much better overall product to us the consumer, and at a much more cost effective manner.

spotnic is a wifi hotspot startup in the toronto area. they have inked a deal with telus to provide wifi to it's customers in the future. they say that many of the hotspot providers are in the early stages of working out way to put together associated networks where you can roam from one providers network to another similar to the way cellular networks operate now. down the road they see a group of providers under the umbrella of a single cellular provider such as i mentioned with t-mobile and t-mo simply provides you with the best type of access for your location....wifi if it is there, cellular if it isn't.

dave

[eternalblue]

Bell Canada has been experimenting with this in the Toronto area for a while. Seems to work good for those that I know, that have tried it.

dave

don't they have one of those at union station in downtown toronto? has anyone every tried it? does anyone know of any other places that bell has set up a wi-fi hotspot?

[karen]

Bell Canada has been experimenting with this in the Toronto area for a while. Seems to work good for those that I know, that have tried it.

dave

don't they have one of those at union station in downtown toronto? has anyone every tried it? does anyone know of any other places that bell has set up a wi-fi hotspot?

I use the one at Pearson airport all the time. It works, it's free (for now) and it's available in the Maple Leaf Club.

Karen

[bdegroodt]

Wow! I don't subscribe to Verizon DSL, so I'm kind of jealous of this because today I was walking past a local payphone in my neighborhood and it had a poster on it that said "You're Hot!" I knew that had to mean the phone was a Hot Spot and sure enough it was. I thought this would take many months before we'd see even one, but I have to give Verizon credit for following right up and deploying what looks like hundreds in the city already.

You can see the map of locations at http://www.verizon.net/wifi

[bdegroodt]

Here's a peek inside the phone booths at

http://www.verilan.com/news/verizon.shtml

[Janak Parekh]

Wow! I don't subscribe to Verizon DSL, so I'm kind of jealous of this because today I was walking past a local payphone in my neighborhood and it had a poster on it that said "You're Hot!" I knew that had to mean the phone was a Hot Spot and sure enough it was. I thought this would take many months before we'd see even one, but I have to give Verizon credit for following right up and deploying what looks like hundreds in the city already.
Absolutely, but it's extremely short-sighted to make this only available to their DSL customers. :evil: I hope they reconsider soon! It would be amazingly convenient if all payphones were equipped -- imagine being able to do a quick map lookup on a NYC curb without having to dial out!

--janak

[Jacob]

I'm hoping it's successful in NY so they might start that in Chicago!!

[bdegroodt]

Wow! I don't subscribe to Verizon DSL, so I'm kind of jealous of this because today I was walking past a local payphone in my neighborhood and it had a poster on it that said "You're Hot!" I knew that had to mean the phone was a Hot Spot and sure enough it was. I thought this would take many months before we'd see even one, but I have to give Verizon credit for following right up and deploying what looks like hundreds in the city already.
Absolutely, but it's extremely short-sighted to make this only available to their DSL customers. :evil: I hope they reconsider soon! It would be amazingly convenient if all payphones were equipped -- imagine being able to do a quick map lookup on a NYC curb without having to dial out!

--janak

I'm with you on that one Janak. My first thought was to walk over to the phone booth and see what the physical set up was. My second thought was, "How can I gain access even if I'm not a subscriber?" :twisted: I'm sure this will be the summer project of the hacker community in the city.