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VoIP brings back old-fashioned pay phones to rural Vermont (2025)
- singpolyma3 6mo agoI wonder how this will work with the FCC's proposed regulation to require ID, address, and "alternate phone number" for anyone who make make a phone call.
- macintux 6mo agoThat sounds alarming, but from reading more about it, it doesn't seem like it would be relevant to this, although in the long run it's certainly possible that calling from a payphone would never actually reach someone directly, being shunted to the "you probably don't care about this" purgatory voicemail. https://www.mintz.com/insights-center/viewpoints/2776/2025-11-20-fcc-proposes-new-rules-call-branding-and-caller-id https://www.mintz.com/insights-center/viewpoints/2776/2025-1... But that would seem true today as well.
- singpolyma3 6mo agoTry instead https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-420711A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-420711A1.pdf
- refulgentis 6mo agoI appreciated the concern, but after looking into it, that’s much more than what the FCC has proposed. The “ID, address, and alternate phone number” idea is part of a proposed Know-Your-Customer rule for artificial voice service providers when they sign up or renew customers, especially to stop illegal robocallers from getting network access. It’s not a requirement that every person provide ID before placing each phone call. The call-branding proposal is separate: it’s about displaying verified caller name/branding information when a call gets top-level STIR/SHAKEN attestation. “ID required for anyone who makes a call” is doing a little too much work. The telecom acronyms are exhausting enough without adding extra panic. :)
- singpolyma3 6mo agoI didn't say every time they make a call. But everyone who is able to make a call. I don't see any reason a user of a payphone is not a customer of the payphone provider for example. We'll have to wait for the final guidance from the FCC, but as a telecoms provider I'm quite concerned about the direction.
- refulgentis 6mo agoMay I submit you do see the reason, even, you named it? :) They are a user of a payphone, not subleasing a number that could be used for robodialing.
- singpolyma3 6mo agoAnd if they stand at the payphone and make scam calls for an hour and someone reports this and the payphone operator gets asked to identify this customer of theirs?
- refulgentis 6mo agoThey’ll say “Well it’s a payphone” and the court will say “yeah obviously the rule wasn’t written for all callers it’s KYC for people who resale numbers” and then you’ll say “but TECHNICALLY” and the judge will smile and say sir we’re not in the habit of absurd maximalisms, your interpretation is at its face untenable, hence your interest in avoiding the consequences of it.
- tardedmeme 6mo agoThen a police officer can visit the payphone and find out.
- singpolyma3 6mo agoIndeed. Well let's hope
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 6mo agoCredit card only?
- singpolyma3 6mo agohttps://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-420711A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-420711A1.pdf Credit cards may no longer be enough soon
- arbuge 6mo ago> free-to-use pay phones Some redundant words there perhaps.
- dylan604 6mo agoYou could use a pay phone to call the operator. You can use it to make collect calls. Hell, if you were industrious enough, you could trick the phone into giving you a dial tone for free. The VoIP ones will probably be harder to trick though
- thaumasiotes 6mo agoWhy? Payphones have never been distinguished by the fact that you had to pay to use them. You also had to pay for the phone in your home. Payphones were distinguished by the fact that they were located in convenient public places, and if you needed to contact someone, you could use them. That's still true here.
- unethical_ban 6mo agoPeople know what a payphone is, and the service it provides. As he said in the article, he chose the payphone style for what it signals to people - that it is public infrastructure.
- userbinator 6mo agoThis is an example of the few places where something like this is feasible. free-to-use pay phones What an oxymoron. I suggest the term "public phone".
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- ChrisArchitect 6mo ago(2025) OP Prior to that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44188204 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44188204 See also: Futel (Portland, Wash. State etc) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42220598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42220598 Philtel (Philadelphia) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33851030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33851030
- jmux 6mo agodudes rock
- bahmboo 6mo agoHow many phone numbers do you have memorized? These days I only know a few but I used to know dozens.
- iamalizard 6mo ago[dead]
- hdgvhicv 6mo agoI know half a dozen. All from the 80s and 90s, and only two which actually exist today. Other than that I know mine and my wife’s. Oddly enough I knew a company which had a phone number which was two digits transposed from my home number - 818614. My number until about 1993 was 818641. Didn’t realise the company was still going until a couple of weeks ago when a lorry pulled up outside my window with the name and phone number on. The other number I remember is my school number for some reason, I can’t think of ever have rung it. It’s still the same number today, 30 years later.
- MrMorden 6mo agoA few family, a few friends, some past work numbers, some of my phone numbers from a decade or two ago when I occasionally changed them, the Apple switchboard because I might have bled in six colors a long time ago, and of course Jenny because if not for her I'd have no clue whose phone number to give to the grocery store checkout system.
- userbinator 6mo agoMore IP addresses than phone numbers for me, but around a dozen of each.
- chadgpt3 6mo agoSomeone should make a payphone where you dial an IP address.
- fragmede 6mo agoDue to a failure of smartphone navigation UX, I know a bunch of addresses for work/friends/etc but very few new phone numbers. To learn an important phone number, someone told me to use that as my phone's lock screen/PIN.
- AussieWog93 6mo agoOne of the few good things that Telstra did in Australia was open up their whole old payphone network for free, nationwide. Apparently they're a genuine lifeline for people fleeing from abusive relationships; they need to leave their mobile behind to avoid being tracked.
- bigstrat2003 6mo agoI wish we had that in the US. Not due to abuse victims per se (though that does sound super useful for them), but just because it would be nice to not have to carry a cell phone to get ahold of people.
- WarcrimeActual 6mo agoThe US is functionally a Third World country now. There are so many places worse than us that have so many better things. Anytime you see a little thing like this that is a good idea and helps people you can just assume that America would either fuck it up or just hate it because it helps people. Or because of the fact that they can’t ring every penny from the stone.
- Spooky23 6mo agoIt’s hard to appreciate this until you spend some time elsewhere. I was in Barcelona for a few weeks for work. While I don’t want to pretend there are no problems, I can only say that life seemed better and happier than back home. I didn’t sense the cynicism that I’m used to. It was especially jarring considering that pretty much everyone is underpaid by American professional standards. That said, it’s anecdotal, I speak mediocre Spanish and toddler level Catalan, and my boss was paying the bill. But it was still striking to me.
- KetoManx64 6mo agoI image locals don't spend a lot of time discussing their hardships, political views and economics with the visiting gringos
- Frank-Landry 6mo agoI went to school with Patrick and I live a couple towns over from him. He knows his stuff that's for sure.
- linsomniac 6mo agoI should add a VoIP pay phone to my Little Free Library. A friend reported a pay phone in a dumpster near work and I was, at the time, feeling like I should rescue it, but I have too much stuff as it is.
- rahimnathwani 6mo agoWouldn't you worry about someone using it to make abusive calls that are then blamed on you? I guess you could make it so that the person receiving the call hears a message saying this is a payphone.
- linsomniac 6mo agoI would, but I would hope that having to physically be at my house would help reduce that issue.
- FlyThruTheSun 6mo agoWow this article really gave me flashbacks of payphone phreaking back in the day to call my mom for permission to go somewhere.
- gyulai 6mo agoWhat's the law these days in Vermont / the U.S. around anonymous use of the phone system? Are anonymous burner SIMs still allowed?
- bobowzki 6mo agoFun! I just put together my own phone exchange at home using Asterisk. It can be challenging to configure but LLMs can help a lot with this in my experience. https://github.com/ast/wjmasterisk https://github.com/ast/wjmasterisk
- doublesocket 6mo agoI had an idea years ago to hook up a bunch of old payphones on the playa at burning man. Solar powered and connected over VoIP on a mesh network. Sadly never got to make it happen but would have been a fun art project.
- MikeRichardson 6mo agoYou used to be able to connect Google Voice to a specific brand of ATA (and existing connections still work); that would have been perfect for something like this.