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I accept that public pay-phone is practically dead. I can’t name anyone over the age of 12 that doesn’t have a mobile phone and the three year olds I know can use their parent’s mobiles. Our over dependence on mobile phones means that on the rare occasion when we attempt to use the arcane pay phone, we cannot remember any phone numbers to punch into its overly tactile keypad.

So it seems logical that we accept its increased disappearance from our street scape.

But in Sweden the public phone is being given a new lease on life. I think the best explanation is that someone thought about the opportunities presented through the public phones network, not just about the falling revenues and increasing maintenance costs.

Public phones often sit in prime real estate. In main squares, outside cafes, and where people wait for trains, buses and for the day to pass them by. Public phones have power, and are connected to telecommunication networks.

It seems so logical. Telia is turning each public phone into a wireless hotspot. Free if you use Telia broadband, and a they offer range of packages if you don’t.

My mobile broadband service provider (3 Sweden) is in the unusual situation where there coverage is shrinking – at least in the areas I frequent. Six months ago I could use the internet for all but five minutes of my 75 minute train commute. But now the internet only works around the stations. It makes me think Telia is onto something – their service only works at the stations, but is faster!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 9:22 and is filed under Sweden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.