Susan P Crawford, Columnist

Useless Pay Phones Are the Wi-Fi Future

What should the city do with its 10,000 aging pay phones? Turn them into Wi-Fi hot spots. There's only one problem.

July 22, 2014 at 8:21 PM UTC

Susan Crawford, the John A. Reilly visiting professor in intellectual property at Harvard Law School, is the author of "Captive Audience." Her book "The Responsive City," with co-author Stephen Goldsmith, will be published in September. In 2009, Susan Crawford served as special assistant to President Barack Obama for science, technology, and innovation policy. She is a former law partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale). She is the founder of OneWeb Day, a global Earth Day for the Internet held each Sept. 22. She earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, and a law degree from Yale University.

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

The homely pay phones of New York City are ghostly, graffiti-scarred reminders of an earlier era. But they could play a role in the city's digital environment if New York gets its priorities straight. The crucial step is for the city to treat these pay phones as it does its bridges or trees: like basic infrastructure, not just opportunities for short-term revenue.

Last week, New York received bids from companies interested in replacing the nearly 10,000 existing pay phones throughout the five boroughs with upgraded, attractive structures. The city is calling for free public Wi-Fi, among other amenities, to be provided by the winning bidder.