My evil plan of repopulating the Delaware Valley with payphones again.

I came up with a few ideas of making payphones money rakers again in the past, such as installing cellular hotspots or advertising on the sides of the payphone (like in NYC, Miami, NJ). My first idea was installing Helium Mobile cellular antennas on the top of my payphones. One great thing about outdoor payphones, is they have tall masts, VERY TALL in some cases. If you don't know what Helium Mobile is, it's a user-built cellular network that was gaining popularity. You can buy an antenna from them, and they'll pay you based on how much traffic and the location. Since I have a bunch of outdoor payphones with tall masts in a major city, I thought I hit the goldmine of locations.

Helium Mobile antenna concept

When the interest in installing antennas was at its peak, people were trying to figure out "Where the heck can I put this, and how can I convince property owners to let me install one?". Independent ATM Deployers (IAD) have already figured this out for indoor antennas, just stick one on your ATM. But what about outdoors? That's what stumped people, but not me. I had a network of outdoor payphones that would be great for this. But great things don't last long, from what I've heard the amount of money that you make from these antennas has tanked, so I scrapped this idea.

So, what's next? After hearing that the ACP was going to be phased out, I had a brilliant idea. If you don't know what the ACP is, it's The Affordable Connectivity Act. The purpose of the ACP was to help low-income citizens to have broadband access. But the ACP was also used for free cellular phones/tablets, think of it as Obama Phones on steroids. The amount of Free Wi-Fi hotspots in Philadelphia has been decreasing, either because they aren't maintained, turned off, or put behind a paywall. Xfinity now charges $20/mo for a pass, Optimum is exclusive to their subscribers only, and even McDonald's has been turning off their Free Wi-Fi.

So low-income citizens will lose their unlimited high-speed data on their cellular device, Wi-Fi hotspots have been decreasing, or put behind a paywall. I thought I could take advantage of this occurrence to cash in on this. 

My coin-op kiosk

So, I came up with the idea, why not start a coin-op hotspot operation? Let customers of a business, such as a pizza place or laundromat, deposit 5¢ for a few minutes of internet connection? Lifeline is providing them the voice minutes, but not the high-speed data. If my payphones can still rake in around $10/mo, and coin-op breathalyzers exist (that don't make much), I'm sure this service will bring in something.

Advertising on one of my payphones

But what does this have to do with payphones?

Because the company that makes these hotspots (Maxcomm/SOL) also produces these, A combo unit of a payphone and Wi-Fi hotspot.

Although they might look odd, they are payphones. These will work in the USA and are already popular in other countries such as the Philippines and Mexico. 

My plan is this:

1. Find a location to install my coin-op Wi-Fi hotspot. This will be the hardest part since I can't prove that it'll bring income.
2. Install the coin-op hotspot if I land a location (preferably a laundromat).
3. Let the hotspot do its thing, generate revenue for a month, and see how it does. If it does great, invest in it more.
4. Find another location, but this time with a payphone/hotspot unit. Since you now have proof that it generates money, this will make it easier to convince businesses to let you offer your service at their establishment.
5. Install the payphone/hotspot unit.
6. Repeat over and over again until all districts of Philadelphia are covered, and expand to Bucks County, Delaware County, Chester County, Trenton NJ, and Camden NJ.

I know charging for Wi-Fi might sound "evil" or inconsiderate, however, these people don't really have many options with the rapid decrease of free hotspots. Although, I still have to compete with Philly Community Wireless and LinkPHL. However, their expansion is slow so I'm not worried about it that much.

Since my hotspot will piggyback off of the business's ISP, I'm going to have to offer a commission. I'm currently thinking of offering 15% to 50% of profits depending on how much money the machine makes. The reason why I can't just do payphones is that these businesses are there to make money, not to provide convenience. Payphones don't make as much as they used to, so business owners won't have interest unless they're genuinely thoughtful or required by law. 

This project is something that I will continue to post updates on. Will it be successful? Probably not, but worth a try.

Concept instruction sign

Concept instruction sign

Concept instruction sign in Spanish

Craigslist ad

Also, a little fun fact, Maxcomm still makes GTE/Quadrum payphones. Although they're by special request only though. Meet the CX900:

EDIT 05/21/2024: I reached out to the manufacturer of the combo payphone & hotspot units and they've been recently discontinued. Maybe I could pitch in a combo deal of a fortress-style payphone and hotspot but wall space is a concern.