New York City’s last public coin-operated phone booth was turned off Monday by authorities on the 7th. avenue and 50th street, in the center of the island of Manhattan.
The municipal authorities and the president of the district of Manhattan, Mark Levine, They had the last “booth” with two telephones dismantled and placed in a truck, which had been located for years on the corner of 7th. avenue and 50th street, in the center of the Big Apple, marked by the blue bell logo of the telecommunications company Bell System.
“I was there today for the last goodbye to the famous NYC pay phone. I won’t miss his lack of tone, but I have to admit I feel a nostalgic knot in my stomach to see him go,” Levine said. through his Twitter account.
The leader pointed out that he really “doesn’t miss the time when these phones worked one out of every two times, where you had to search your pockets for a quarter coin (25 cents) or stand in line to call in the middle of the street in full view of passers-by,” he told the AFP agency.
Payphones began to disappear from the New York landscape in the early 2000s as cell phones became more popular, accelerating after 2010 with the explosion of smartphones.
Since 2015, Manhattan has accelerated the installation of thousands of LinkNYC terminals that offer WiFi and free local calls, which will progressively connect to the 5G network.
“It really is the end of an era, but also hopefully the start of a new era with more equal access to technology,” Levine said.in allusion to the northern neighborhoods of Manhattan, in particular Harlem, with poorer coverage capacity by telephone networks and the Internet.
According to the local press, Manhattan will retain just four old phone booths on the Upper West Side, on West End Avenue at the level of 66th, 90th, 100th and 101st streets.
