News

Internet phones connected in New York

February 11, 2002

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NEW YORK - A New York-based telephone company is trying to bring a slice of European technology to the Big Apple. TCC Teleplex on Feb. 10 introduced an Internet payphone on the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 46th Street.

The phone, believed to be the first outdoor Internet payphone in the country, has been installed for a 30-day test. If successful, TCC plans to deploy another 100 Internet phones throughout the city.

The phones offer customers e-mail, Web surfing, and domestic and international calls for 25 cents per minute. The unit includes a handset, 12-inch screen, keyboard, and touch pad, and is constructed in steel casing to answer critics who expect an outdoor payphone to face abuse in a city such as New York.

"You can spill coffee or ketchup on it and it will still work," Dennis Novice, TCC president, told the New York Times.

Along with usage revenue, TCC expects to generate advertising revenue through screen shots and messages at the end of e-mail messages.

Similar Internet payphones projects have been launched on the other side of the Atlantic. In December, British Telecom announced plans to deploy 28,000 Internet payphones in the United Kingdom by 2007. (See story: British Telecom rings up Marconi for deal).

Founded in 1984, TCC deploys about 1,500 pay phones in the city.