A man appears who sets up a 'public telephone that can be used for free' out of his own pocket
Public telephones that allow you to make calls as much as you put in money used to be everywhere in town and in buildings, but they are disappearing with the spread of mobile phones and smartphones, and in May 2022,
PhilTel Brings Back Pay Phones Without Change in Philly – NBC10 Philadelphia
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/tech/pay-phone-philadelphia/3452775/
This Philly Guy Is Trying to Bring Back the Pay Phone Without the Pay Part-YouTube
In modern times, it is quite rare to see public telephones in the city, and it is not uncommon for young people to say, ``I have never used a public telephone.'' Also, even among generations who have used public telephones, there must be many people who last used public telephones a long time ago.
Even in America, public telephones are disappearing one after another, and they are already becoming something that only exists in memories.
Mike Dunk, who lives in Philadelphia, points out that in recent years, even if there is a pay phone in the city, you have to touch it to see if it really works.
So Dunk launched a project called '
It may seem that everyone has a smartphone these days, but there are still a few people who cannot obtain a mobile phone or smartphone, or who have difficulty making phone calls due to economic circumstances. Therefore, Mr. Dunk believes that installing a public telephone that anyone can use for free will benefit the community.
The base public phone was purchased by Mr. Dunk at a flea market 10 years ago.
A dedicated chip developed by Philtel is built inside, and users can make free calls within North America.
Philtel installed its first free pay phone on December 17, 2022 at a bookstore called
Although there is no charge for the user to make a call, the necessary cost is covered by Mr. Dunk's pocket money. It costs $ 300 to $ 1000 (about 40,000 yen to 130,000 yen) for each public telephone to be installed, and some costs are required for each call time.
Dunk said he expects donations from well-intentioned people, but expects the out-of-pocket costs to be not too high even without donations.
Mr. Dunk hopes that payphones will be installed again in all areas, and is also interested in how modern children respond to payphones and how parents teach them how to use them. It is said that there is. “We want to see how these archaic processes that once existed in every region work,” Dunk said.
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