A friend has long run a non-profit, called Futel, that’s sort of a hybrid community service and art project providing free payphones. As they describe it:

At Futel, we believe in the preservation of public telephone hardware as a means of providing access to the agora for everybody, and toward that goal we are privileged to provide free telephone calls, voicemail, and telephone-mediated services.

All services, including telephony and human interaction, are free from any Futel telephone.

The organization is run out of Portland, OR, but they have a phone here in Michigan in the nearby city of Ypsilanti funded and hosted by a local business. About six years ago they needed a volunteer to maintain the phone, and I jumped at the opportunity.

Over the years I’ve replaced the entire phone twice, the SIP box three times, and installed at least five new handsets. Payphone equipment is incredibly durable, but the public can be pretty determined in their frustration at whomever they’re talking to and sometimes take it out on the phone.

When you pick up the phone it says “press 1 to make a call”, which is what most folks want to do, but if you listen to the rest of the menu it has options to be connected to social services, local politicians’ offices, and some fun/odd entertainments including a party chat with anyone else who is doing the same at the sibling phones.

The phone is located near the main Ypsi public transit hub, so it gets a good lot of use.

Contact the Futel operator if you’re interested in funding or hosting a phone. If you’re local you’ll probably get me as an installer and maintainer.

Payphone exterior
Payphone inside