The last public telephone booth in New York City, in the United States, was taken o_ the streets by a crane on May 23rd. The item was considered a local icon. In the past, public telephones were present on almost every street in the city. They were placed throughout New York, as well as other cities around the world, so people could make phone calls when away from home. However, they were made obsolete by cell phones.

Removing public phones is part of a project to modernize the city. The project started in 2014 and since then, pay phones have been replaced by kiosks. That is where people can charge their cell phones, and access free WiFi provided by the government, among other services. Currently, there are about 2,000 kiosks of this type spread across New York.

“Just like we transitioned from the horse and buggy to the automobile (…), the digital evolution has progressed from payphones to high-speed WiFi kiosks to meet the demands of our rapidly changing daily communications needs”, explained Matthew Fraser, NYC’s Commissioner of the Office of Technology and Innovation, in a statement to the local press. The last phone booth is going to an exhibit in the Museum of the City of New York that will show what the city was like before the digital age.

Questions

1) What will happen to the last phone booth in New York?

a) It will be part of the collection of a museum.

b) It will be in the White House, the office of the United States government.

c) It will be donated to raise funds for refugees.

d) It will be sent to city hall.

2) In your opinion, what other objects in use today could be replaced by technology in the future? Why?

Sources: CNBC, Gothamist, G1, and The Guardian

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