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At some point, it's not gonna be about the payphone because, who cares, we don't need those quarters.
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We're on Wi-Fi right now.
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[In 2004, there were 25,000 payphones in New York City.]
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[Today, CBS Outdoor maintains 3,200.]
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So right here what we have is the collection of many of the phones we've taken out over the past two years.
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Right around this level is where it starts to corrode, this is usually due to both humans and dogs urinating frequently on the pedestal.
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In some of these other units we've installed angled shelves on them so that it actually falls onto the ground or more hopefully onto their own feet.
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So, then they learn a lesson not to urinate on the phone.
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[The payphones generate $40,000 to $60,000 per year in coin revenues.]
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So we get to a phone.
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The first thing we do is check to make sure it works.
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We dial 0, we make sure the handset works that you can hear it you blow into it.
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And then you make a phone call just to make sure that the call goes through.
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And the coin gets collected into the machine.
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This right here we got about twenty or thirty dollars in here.
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The weirdest thing I've ever found in a payphone was a used hypodermic needle.
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Not so weird but definitely unsanitary.
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I've also once found old baseball cards jammed in here.
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Like old old baseball cards, so you'd think that someone would hold on to those.
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For some reason they decided not to... the phones really do take on the personality of the neighborhood.
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Sometimes you would find like over here like someone was giving out guitar lessons or something.
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And you know it's actually I feel bad. You know... getting rid of it. It's graffiti, but a lot of times I like to leave it, cause it does... it gives a little bit of a personality.
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"Ain't nothing changed except after we die, we return to life, back to the money..."
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You gonna give yourself a headache trying to figure out.
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[In 2012, phone operators added Wi-Fi hotspots to 10 phones.]
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So it's just like in your home you know you have a modem and a router.
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But here it's a little more meat to it.
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And people they end up logging in, they probably don't even know it comes from a payphone.
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It's a beautiful thing.
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You can see right here, free Wi-Fi Van Wagner.
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That's us.
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That's coming from right here.
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- [CBS Outdoor s exploring ways to monetize its Wi-Fi via sponsorships.] - The future of these phones is not the phones.
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It's the infrastructure.
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If you have electricity and internet inside the payphone, you can do anything.
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[Today CBS Outdoors has 35 Wi-Fi-equipped phones, and more are planned.]
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There they are.
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One night's work, what would you say the total take is, Philip?
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I'd say it is about twelve hundred dollars.
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Yeah, I would go with the... I would say you're comfortable with that.
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At some point it's not gonna to be about the payphone.
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Payphone may actually even be free calls because, who cares, we don't need those quarters.
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We're on Wi-Fi right now.
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Looks like we've got a bag of dog shit... Oh, just an empty bag.
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That's the thing those people walk by and I got like, "Ah, payphones! They're taking videos of payphones. They've never seen a payphone before."
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Guy has no idea there's Wi-Fi coming out of here.