AT&T's Internet Pay Phone

temuchin writes: "Looks like AT&T officially announced their version of the Internet Payphone - the PP2000i. Slashdot ran a story about BT introducing a version of their own back in the summer of '99 (as reported by the BBC), but this seems to be a bit more ambitious to me, as many of them are already installed and in use. You can find more stats on the phones themselves here. I guess we'll see how it goes."

Comments

If AT&T were smart ...

[Hrunting]

I can't understand why this product isn't tied into their Worldnet service. What even bothers me more is the fact that their screenshot has a little AOL.com button down on the bottom buttonbar. What are the head-honchos thinking?

Think about it. Sell your Worldnet service for $9.95 month or whatever the going rate is for generic dialup Internet service and give a special membership card with it. If you swipe this card in any AT&T Pay Phone 2000-i (aren't they a year late?) and you've immediately got access to Worldnet service, probably for a reduced rate or even for free. You've got your pay phones everywhere, so it's like free advertising. You have the opportunity to expand your userbase immensely, and maybe further take on the corporate megamonster AOL.

I think AT&T's missing a golden opportunity to turn a public service into a cash cow.

Not so new

[maggard]

While the i model of this phone may be new the phone itself is based on a decade old design that's been widely distributed. Hotels, airports, convention centers have been sporting variations on "full featured" phones to (from what I've seen) little appreciation. "Sexy phones" are a standard spec. for impress-the-user facilities but honestly I've rarely seen them taken advantage of.

Indeed the only thing I see new/different about the "2000i is the LCD instead of CRT & opening up it's browsing capability. While that's nice I don't see it being particularly different from the already ubiquitious web-browser kiosks already out there, including the ones from AT&T.

Frankly the most interesting thing about this might be it's IR port. While the "Infra-Red Port" is listed in phone diagram it's not in the specs. If the phone is able to look like a standard device to cellphones/laptops/palmtops then it might be very interesting indeed.

As to the folks whining about potential durabilty issues & such - have you really never seen one of these, never walked by the phone-bank at an airport, convention center, hotel, etc. where there's usually 1 or 2 of this phone's kin at the end of the bank? Take a look the phone's spec-page where it notes it's previous 2000-sans-i incarnation. These aren't new phones & AT&T knows a bit about building rugged hardware - trust me these will hold up to most general abuse & aren't stuck out by the side of the road anyway.

Nice name.

[Mike Schiraldi]

the PP2000i

Sounds like it doubles as a pay toilet.

(Why do i get the feeling i'm going to regret not clicking the "Anonymous" checkbox?)

--

"OK?"

[underwhelm]

I think I saw one of these at JFK. It was crashed, and asking "OK?" and registered something like 5 hours of use at the top of the screen.

I doubt that it is "OK" to the person who was using it.

oooh, so much abuse potential!

[Argylengineotis]

Prefab DDoS Hosts

Devices like these phones, web-appliances of moderate power, are going to make terrific hosts for script kiddies and info-terrorists.

Also, I can imagine a group of rascally troublemakers that traceroute the phones and sniffs/decrypts packets, grabbing conversations for perhaps public amusement purposes. Much like a police scanner picking up cell-phone conversations.

The Payphone: Not Dead, Reborn!

[krazo]

And to think, a month ago, we were asking, Is the Payphone Dead?

Not at all! It's just been remodelled to allow for new levels of mayhem. In the new internet era, cracking a payphone just seemed so boring. Now, ATT is poised to change all that with the introduction of the Internet Payphone! All your cracking AND phreaking needs in one machine! What more could a script kiddy want?

Hey! BT's phones *are* in use!

[kyz]

It just so happens that BT's initial attempt at the web / email / phone combo was too expensive for most people. So right now, all BT's netphones are FREE for internet, email and text messaging. Which, predictably, makes them very popular. Presumably, BT wants to encourage use before re-applying the charge.

Would this be susceptible to vandalism?

[D Anderson n'Swaart]

It strikes me that something with an LCD panel is begging someone to smash it in, and keyboards are a lot more fragile than your average payphone number pad. I realise that AT&T are intending to position these devices in airports etc, but even in locations such as these with a lot of supervision, surely there would be a lot more maintenance involved than with a normal public phone. The article doesn't seem to specifically mention vandalism, but if AT&T intend to market the 2000-i more widely at some stage, it could become a problem. I am, of course, speaking from a somewhat uninformed viewpoint, since I live in New Zealand and not America.