End of an era: New York City removes its last public payphone

New York City removed its last standing public payphone from a street near Times Square on Monday, marking the end of an era and the beginning of the city’s digital innovation.

Early on Monday morning, a crane ripped off the coin-operated payphone at 745 7th avenue, located between Seventh Avenue and West 50th Street. 

Out with the old, in with the new! NYC's last free-standing pay phones were removed today; they'll be replaced with a Link, boosting accessibility and connectivity across the city. #upgrade 🪛🔌📶 pic.twitter.com/UIBULnbi74

— LinkNYC (@LinkNYC) May 23, 2022

This initiative started almost a decade ago when former Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a competition to reimagine the city’s payphones. The city decided that New York’s phones would be replaced with LinksNYC Kiosk’s newer technology.

LinksNYC kiosks, now a common sight in the city, offer Wi-Fi, domestic calling, sockets to charge mobile devices, and direct calls to 911 and 311. They can also update New Yorkers on weather conditions or commuting times. 

“You could charge your phone at the kiosks, or use their free Wi-Fi on your phone. And if you don’t have a phone, you could use a built-in tablet at each kiosk to browse the internet or make calls, reported the New York Post in 2016. 

Later this year, LinksNYC plans to expand its network to 5G, according to the Gothamist.

By 2020, around 7,500 of the Big Apple’s payphones were removed, and replaced with around 2,000 LinksNYC. And now, the last standing payphone was also removed.

“As a native New Yorker, saying goodbye to the last street payphone is bittersweet because of the prominent place they’ve held in the city’s physical landscape for decades,” Matthew Fraser, New York’s commissioner of the office of technology and innovation,” said in a statement.

“Just like we transitioned from the horse and buggy to the automobile and from the automobile to the airplane, the digital evolution has progressed from payphones to high-speed wifi kiosks to meet the demands of our rapidly changing daily communications needs.”

END OF AN ERA.

NYC’s last free-standing pay phones removed this a.m. in Times Sq. (7th Ave & 50th St.).

No more fishing in your pocket for quarters.pic.twitter.com/ZtRhzWPp4G

— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) May 23, 2022

“I won’t miss all the dead dial tones but gotta say I felt a twinge of nostalgia seeing it go,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine about the payphone’s removal. 

New York’s last payphone will be exhibited in the Museum of the City of New York as part of the “Analog City: NYC B.C. (Before Computers)” exhibit, which opened last week. 

"It's really fortuitous, I have to say," Lilly Tuttle, the curator of the show, told Gothamist about the museum's acquisition.

The fact that we had just opened an exhibition on this topic really made it a no-brainer," she added. "In the exhibition, we talk about the fact that people made plans and navigated the city and did things for decades and decades before cell phones. We were New Yorkers before and we're New Yorkers now, and whether or not we have pay phones doesn't necessarily symbolize the end of anything, just a change in the way we communicate."