The "FU" is how you answer the phone when the man tries to bring ya down
May 18, 2022 9:16 PM Subscribe
Futel: Free Public Telephony in the name of Social Justice. "Denial of telephony services has long been a tactic used against undesirable populations, and our devices will counteract that. But more importantly, we will help to establish a new era of communication, one in which reaching out is not only desirable, but mandatory." In a nutshell, Futel fixes up old public telephone booths, and then resituates them back into public spaces so that Anyone can call Anyone again, and be able to stick their used gum in the plastic folder that used to hold a phone book. Here's a HOPE talk from 2018: "Futel: A Technology So Advanced We Leave It Out On The Street All Night"
sounds like the right reasons
...and certainly not just so they could continue to rake in the ad money from the phone booths.
posted by pompomtom at 10:20 PM on May 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
...and certainly not just so they could continue to rake in the ad money from the phone booths.
posted by pompomtom at 10:20 PM on May 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
sounds like the right reasonsWell yes ads, and I'm sure also that it was costing them more in the overhead of having to send cash-handling trucks out to collect all the small amounts of 20¢ and 50¢ coins. Still that's what I kind of miss about using public phones in the coin era, that clunk-clunk before the connection went live. Made it feel worth the forty cents for an untimed local call.
Call-a-druid: this is excellent.
June 6th Child caller said hello, asked what I was doing. I provided information. Exchanged names, and they said they had to go. I said to call back anytime.posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:57 PM on May 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
June 18th Caller asked if I knew of or heard the term “bitch feet”. I hadn’t and couldn’t provide further information, as I had no internet access. They said I use the demultiplexer and hung up.
[Oh! I forgot to add: VIA JESSAMYN'S ZINE COLLECTION]
posted by not_on_display at 11:01 PM on May 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by not_on_display at 11:01 PM on May 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
...and certainly not just so they could continue to rake in the ad money from the phone booths.
We have a phone box at the open end of our little cul-de-sac in the UK. Never seen anyone use it. I think most people are blind to it now. Every so often someone smashes a window and every so often someone fixes it and puts up the latest KFC ad campaign branding. My understanding is that phoneboxes here are heavily subsidised by BT's domestic customers and BT have to maintain some basic standard for anyone without other phone access. Last time I used one it was 60p minimum and since you are nearly always calling a mobile that lasts about 20seconds. Since most people seem not to be carrying cash anymore I wonder how long this can last. But if BT is turning a regulated profit then forever is not impossible.
My mind is more than capable of imagining that the insides of the phone box may be less than sparkling as to hygiene and i have no intention of finding out. Its actually ad free at the moment but someone has spilled white paint down the outside and then scratched FUCK THE POLICE into the outer surface. Long tail guerrilla marketing perhaps?
posted by biffa at 5:19 AM on May 19, 2022
We have a phone box at the open end of our little cul-de-sac in the UK. Never seen anyone use it. I think most people are blind to it now. Every so often someone smashes a window and every so often someone fixes it and puts up the latest KFC ad campaign branding. My understanding is that phoneboxes here are heavily subsidised by BT's domestic customers and BT have to maintain some basic standard for anyone without other phone access. Last time I used one it was 60p minimum and since you are nearly always calling a mobile that lasts about 20seconds. Since most people seem not to be carrying cash anymore I wonder how long this can last. But if BT is turning a regulated profit then forever is not impossible.
My mind is more than capable of imagining that the insides of the phone box may be less than sparkling as to hygiene and i have no intention of finding out. Its actually ad free at the moment but someone has spilled white paint down the outside and then scratched FUCK THE POLICE into the outer surface. Long tail guerrilla marketing perhaps?
posted by biffa at 5:19 AM on May 19, 2022
I try to keep a few cheap USB power bricks close at hand because even though I try to minimize the amount of personal activity I do on my phone, it's still the 2FA for a ton of my online activities, there's no way in hell I'm going to lend it out to someone whose battery has died so that they can make a quick call.
I last did that back in 2011 at a gas station. Someone walked up to my car, gave some story about a fight with a boyfriend and being stranded at the mini-mart with a dead battery. Because I'm a considerate and helpful individual, I just handed her my phone and she walked away with it. I lost sight of her and I spent the next five minutes contemplating how being a good and trusting person means you sometimes get taken before she returned and thanked me for helping her out.
If maintaining free phone booths means I don't have to carry around a cheap burner flip phone to hand to someone whose forgotten theirs, then I think it's a worthwhile price to pay for the peace of mind. People have a way to make calls, and I don't have to feel like a jerk for refusing to hand over the pocket computer for which my life is increasingly centered around.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:37 AM on May 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
I last did that back in 2011 at a gas station. Someone walked up to my car, gave some story about a fight with a boyfriend and being stranded at the mini-mart with a dead battery. Because I'm a considerate and helpful individual, I just handed her my phone and she walked away with it. I lost sight of her and I spent the next five minutes contemplating how being a good and trusting person means you sometimes get taken before she returned and thanked me for helping her out.
If maintaining free phone booths means I don't have to carry around a cheap burner flip phone to hand to someone whose forgotten theirs, then I think it's a worthwhile price to pay for the peace of mind. People have a way to make calls, and I don't have to feel like a jerk for refusing to hand over the pocket computer for which my life is increasingly centered around.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:37 AM on May 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have a Futel sticker on the back of my cell phone! It's a great little project of love, some combination of social outreach and art project and hipster tech. Karl's done a bunch of neat other projects including mutant bikes and The Church of Robotron.
posted by Nelson at 5:59 AM on May 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 5:59 AM on May 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
Cool post, great project! Especially the fact that they have actual human operators.
Our local infoshop used to have a "people's phone" mounted outside the store. They didn't have a source for real payphones (or the know-how to install one), so the actual phone was just a succession of regular phones from the thrift store that kept getting trashed. But people loved that service; it was heavily used, and folks were always popping into the store to say how much they appreciated it. It's such a simple thing but it fills a real need, even now, when cell phones seem so ubiquitous. (Futel had 10,900 outgoing calls in 2021!)
There's an interesting post on the Futel blog about the Apology Line, an unrelated project in NYC in the 80s and 90s where you could call in and leave an anonymous voicemail apologizing for your wrongs. More info here.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 10:06 AM on May 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
Our local infoshop used to have a "people's phone" mounted outside the store. They didn't have a source for real payphones (or the know-how to install one), so the actual phone was just a succession of regular phones from the thrift store that kept getting trashed. But people loved that service; it was heavily used, and folks were always popping into the store to say how much they appreciated it. It's such a simple thing but it fills a real need, even now, when cell phones seem so ubiquitous. (Futel had 10,900 outgoing calls in 2021!)
There's an interesting post on the Futel blog about the Apology Line, an unrelated project in NYC in the 80s and 90s where you could call in and leave an anonymous voicemail apologizing for your wrongs. More info here.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 10:06 AM on May 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
Oh wow, I think I just saw one of their phones in Portland the other day (the one off 13th & Killingsworth)
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 1:23 PM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 1:23 PM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
not_on_display: "Denial of telephony services has long been a tactic used against undesirable populations, and our devices will counteract that."
Futel is resistance.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:47 PM on May 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
Futel is resistance.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:47 PM on May 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
I wouldn’t describe our little local telecom company as being part of the resistance, but here on Whidbey Island you’ll never be very far from a free phone booth.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 6:01 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 6:01 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
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Ye olde national provider in Aus has made a lot of questionable decisions over the years, but making all pay phones free last year was definitely a call it got right and for what sounds like the right reasons
posted by jcm at 9:34 PM on May 18, 2022 [10 favorites]