Payphones: Not just for drug deals anymore. New York City has introduced a pilot program to install free public WiFi hotspots on payphones across the city. So now the technology made obselete by your cell phone can help you use your cell phone better. Ten locations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens have now been equipped to broadcast the internet signal and more are coming to the Bronx and Staten Island.

From New York Times City Room blog:

“As we begin assessing the future of the pay phone in New York City, this pilot should help us gauge public interest in some of the amenities the next generation of devices might offer,” said Rahul N. Merchant, commissioner of the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

The Wi-Fi signal, which works with all the usual laptops, smartphones and tablet devices, will extend between 100 and 200 feet away from each pay phone. The city said there would be no limits on usage or bandwidth. There is no charge to connect to the signal.

Add WiFi to guerilla librarian John Locke’s payphone bookshelves, and New York’s payphones could become hubs of information dissemination.

[h/t @HiMYSYeD]

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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg

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