|
Archives for the category: Public Phone Booths
September 20, 2006Dial H for history
"The humble phone book, dating back to the Victorians, is providing a rich seam of social history. And as part of the boom in genealogy, back issues of phone directories have been scanned and published online in a venture between BT and a family history website. Other Excerpts: -- The honour for appearing first in the very first phone book goes to John Adam & Co, 11 Pudding Lane in the City of London. -- Other entries making their debut in the early phone books were Alexander Bell - yes, he who invented the phone - and Keith Prowse. Yep, selling tickets. -- It also shows how quickly the telephone spread. By 1914, the phone book was the largest single printing contract in the country, running off 1.5 million copies. --Phone books give a snapshot through the following decades of the 20th Century of where people were living. -- The re-published phone books stop at 1984, before the arrival of mobile phones and the proliferation of numbers and communications. emily | 3:01 PM | permalink
September 12, 2006LOST ART Brazilian Pay Phones
LOST ART Brazilian Pay Phones. [via del.icio.us/regine] Public use phones in Brazil exist since the 1920s, but the payphones known popularly as "orelhões" (literally, "big ears") were created in 1970 by Shanghai-born architect Chu Ming Silveira (1941-1997). Chu Ming was head engineer at CTB (Brasil Telephone Company) and created the first fiberglass design named CHU-1. These classic designs were first presented to the public in Rio and São Paulo in 1972. Since then the design has remained vastly popular, but some touristic destinations in Brazil have created their own designs, some of which are presented on this page. The phones in this small gallery were photographed in: Porto Seguro (Bahia), Bonito (Mato Grosso do Sul), Palmas (Tocantins), Aracaju (Sergipe), Fortaleza (Ceará), and other cities throughout Brazil. emily | 2:39 PM | permalink
September 4, 2006Amish and Mennonites build their own phone booths
... "In the past several years, Amish and Mennonites - who still ride horse-drawn buggies - have quietly erected at least 12 hidden, private phone booths, posting them behind barns, in the woods and, in one case, inside a former chicken coop. Called "community phones," they allow them to conduct business -- crucial to surviving amid the region's development pressures -- while holding on to prohibitions against home phone lines and cellphones. Called "community phones," they are the latest example of how the groups in Maryland and elsewhere have been cutting deals with technology for the past century. ... The new phones hold advantages. The Amish and Mennonites don't have to carry around fistfuls of quarters or buy costly calling cards. Families divide monthly bills. Because the phones are hidden, locked and -- in the case of a metal chamber booth, which was fashioned out of a tank salvaged from a junkyard -- reinforced, the phones are less likely to attract vandals and drug dealers. There are rules. Families can't post phones too close to homes, and they can't outfit them with amplified ringers that effectively would make them house phones. Some Amish don't cotton to voice mail, but Old Order Mennonites seem more accepting of the feature. For both groups, the idea is to limit forces they think will distract them from faith and family. "The telephone, and the use of the telephone, is not something we're opposed to. We just don't want it to be the main part of our lives," said Ethan Brubacher, 31, a nephew of Elmer, who owns Quiet Valley Structures, a shed-building business in Loveville. " emily | 12:35 PM | permalink
August 31, 2006The Payphone Project
The Payphone Project collects stories, pictures and phone numbers of pay phones from around the world. [via Street Use] Picture Above: Payphone on Lake Victoria in Uganda using GSM Technology and Solar Power. Photo sent in by Craig Wheeler, Remkor Technologies South Africa. emily | 10:13 AM | permalink
February 6, 2006Plan for free public phone booths in Maine
"A hearing on the proposal for public interest pay phones will be held Thursday before the Public Utilities Commission. The growing popularity of cell phones has prompted companies to eliminate many public pay phones, particularly in rural areas. The companies say the phones get little use and it is costly to maintain and repair them. But in some areas without good cell service, or in emergency situations, access to a public phone can be essential. Mobiles seem particularly vulnerable to crashing during crisis. The networks are also liable to be shut down to forestall the possibility of mobiles being used as bomb-triggering devices. "A bill sponsored by Adams to authorize the rule change was enacted last session by the Legislature. If the rule is adopted, municipal officials and the public could request public interest pay phones for certain locations, which might include bus stations, airports, highway rest areas, courthouses, post office lobbies, hospitals and medical clinics. Callers could dial for free anywhere in the state, while out-of-state calls could be made using a calling card, credit card, prepaid calling card, or by making a collect call." Picture from Payphones of the world Related: -- Finland to abandon its payphone business by spring 2006 -- Public Telephones Get the Call in South Korea -- Slow demise of a very British icon -- Korea. Mobile Phones Drive Out Street Phone Booths -- Belgium to dismantle 4,000 phone booths -- Phone booths in England losing their popularity emily | 5:50 PM | permalink
August 27, 2004Slow demise of a very British icon
"In its heyday the red call box was a British icon as famous as the red double-decker bus, red postbox, or The Beatles. However with the rise to prominence in recent years of the mobile phone, BT says there has been "a complete culture change in communication. Over the last three years the use of public payphones has almost halved and revenue has dropped by 40%." Related articles: -- Mobile Phones Drive Out Street Phone Booths -- Belgium to dismantle 4,000 phone booths -- Phone booths in England losing their popularity emily | 5:06 PM | permalink
May 12, 2004Belgium to dismantle 4,000 phone boothsBelgian incumbent telco Belgacom has announced it is to scrap roughly 4,000 of the country's telephone booths because so few people are using them anymore, according to DMEurope. Related Article -- Phone booths in England are fighting for their lives in what looks like a losing battle with the cell phones. emily | 4:18 PM | permalink
November 30, 2003SMS for struggling payphonesRival public payphones in Australia may be given a last breath of life with the addition of text-messaging capabilities and email-capable payphones, reports The Age. Telstra has blamed declining numbers of payphones - 1373 were removed last year - on the increasing use of mobile phones but other research shows that two-thirds of payphone callers who have a mobile phone with them, will use a payphone to save costs". emily | 3:38 PM | permalink
| comment (0)
|
![]() Other categories
ADVERTISEMENT / SPONSOR (1)
Ask Experts / Mobile Searches (90) Bullying by SMS (43) Cell Phone Aps (97) Cell Phone Designs and Concepts (154) Cell Phone Etiquette (75) Cell Phone Fashion (545) Cell Phone Monuments (15) Cell Phone Recycling (23) Cell Phones used by Terrorists (40) Cell Phones while driving/flying/sailing (298) Citizens as Informants (16) Do you speak SMS? (39) Domain Names (20) Enhanced Keyboards for SMS (48) European/ZA SMS pricing issues (67) Favorite Companies (5) Fun on Digg (6) Health Issues and SMS Alerts (396) Inmates and Cell Phones (50) Isolation from Cell Phones ideas (36) Localisation (180) M2M (15) Message from textually.org (186) Mobile apps (28) Mobile Cartoons/Comics (17) Mobile phone projects - Third World (138) Mobile RSS (3) Mobile Success Explained: Japan, Europe, USA, China (31) Multimedia Messaging (MMS) (72) New SMS Services (508) News, Buzz (2723) Paul Notzold's Me&My Mobile Class (4) PTT (Push-to-Talk) (55) Public Phone Booths (8) Random Stats (519) SMS and Banking (98) SMS and Business (113) SMS and Charities (81) SMS and Gaming (247) SMS and Government (31) SMS and Insurance (11) SMS and Litterature (64) SMS and Micro Payments (87) SMS and Politics (444) SMS and Porn (65) SMS and Religion (98) SMS and SARS (17) SMS and Students (252) SMS and Television (57) SMS and the Arts (252) SMS and The Movies (37) SMS and Wildlife (25) SMS as Evidence in Court (13) SMS Chat (6) SMS Dating (78) SMS for Deaf/Disabilities (85) SMS Marketing & Advertising (297) SMS Services offered by the Press (118) SMS Studies & Research (273) SMS used as evidence in court (16) SMS used by the Police (90) SMS, a little history (16) SMS, Television and Radio (53) Spam, Viruses and Hoaxes (200) Technology (930) Text Alerts (40) Textually 2003 - The Year in Review (11) Tsunamis, South East Asia (79) Archives by dates
July 2008 (103)
June 2008 (131) May 2008 (141) April 2008 (144) March 2008 (137) February 2008 (175) January 2008 (162) December 2007 (169) November 2007 (149) October 2007 (145) September 2007 (162) August 2007 (117) July 2007 (153) June 2007 (151) May 2007 (145) April 2007 (158) March 2007 (210) February 2007 (181) January 2007 (175) December 2006 (160) November 2006 (132) October 2006 (156) September 2006 (164) August 2006 (190) July 2006 (178) June 2006 (180) May 2006 (171) April 2006 (145) March 2006 (150) February 2006 (191) January 2006 (183) December 2005 (164) November 2005 (201) October 2005 (215) September 2005 (204) August 2005 (269) July 2005 (225) June 2005 (225) May 2005 (234) April 2005 (234) March 2005 (243) February 2005 (242) January 2005 (222) December 2004 (226) November 2004 (182) October 2004 (197) September 2004 (225) August 2004 (225) July 2004 (238) June 2004 (207) May 2004 (144) April 2004 (130) March 2004 (197) February 2004 (112) January 2004 (83) December 2003 (144) November 2003 (155) October 2003 (225) September 2003 (159) August 2003 (117) July 2003 (149) June 2003 (131) May 2003 (87) April 2003 (84) March 2003 (72) February 2003 (25) Free notifications
To get the posts as soon as they are published on this website, just put your email below:
Search this blog
|