The Valley News has a good story about an electrical engineer who put a public pay phone into the general store in North Tunbridge, Vermont – it hooks into the internet and is free.
The whole story is here. The operation is called, semi-tongue-in-cheek, the Randoph Public Telephone Operating Company – a.k.a. RandTel.
The phone looks like a payphone of old, but with some key differences. In place of information the phone company used to put on the front of the phone, Schlott has affixed a card, in the old blue and white colors of Ma Bell, that says “Why a payphone?” At the end of the explanation, he writes, “Think of this phone as a friendly neighbor — here to help when you need it.”
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It also includes a panel with helpful numbers on it, such as the closest towing operation, Blakeman’s, in Tunbridge, the post office, the town fire department, a suicide prevention hotline, and the governor’s office, among others. And it has a number, so someone who needs to receive a call, from a towing company or a family member, say, can do so.
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The phone has been in place since the end of March and Lois Gross estimated that at least one person a day makes use of it. “I’ve had parents come in and show their kids how to use the phone,” she said.
I queried the owner how it worked. His response:
So, yes, the phone uses a VoIP line and an analog telephone adapter (ATA, sometimes called a gateway). I pay for the phone service and the SIP account info gets configured on the ATA. LAN in, POTS out, and the payphone is re-wired to work like a regular phone without needing coins.
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