Internet based pay phones

As I traveled home from a ski trip to Whistler BC Canada the other day, I took note of the self service technology used in the airports. Airports are the largest consumer of kiosks, digital signage and vending that I've come across. Some more than others, obviously. I noticed in the Cincinnati airport, the same kiosks and digital signage exists that I've discussed previously, and they are still not 100% functional. But they've taken the time to add another item (before fixing the previous) and that is an Internet enabled payphone.



It was a nice hardware form factor, and the interface was okay, but really the design of it was from 10 years ago. The unit is produced by a company called Super Pay Phone. As I walked up to it, I noticed it had a Windows message onscreen (a big no no). It had evidently recently applied an automatic Windows update and was waiting on if the PC wanted a reboot. I touched the "reboot" button and the unit shut down and went through it's start up process. There are many reasons why this is bad including allowing hackers to see your OS (to know how to penetrate it), and during the start up they system gives all kinds of other pertinent information to the hacker, including the option to get into the BIOS (should be password protected with a unique password). This unit is obviously not completely PCI compliant. All of this could be fixed simply by changing the auto windows update method to only update late at night (3am) and automatically reboot. Or, not apply updates at all, and allow a network administrator to apply updates.



Years ago we priced similar units for Cincinnati Bell who was thinking of replacing all of their traditional payphones with Internet enabled devices. At the time, they just couldn't justify replacing a $300-$600 dollar device with a $3500 device (times thousands). Now, you can hardly find any payphones on the street, and only occasionally inside. But the smaller start ups such as Smart Pay Phones may take away the Bell presence in this marketplace, and quickly. It will be interesting to see the rate of adoption of these smart devices that provide greater service than a traditional pay phone. A small company trying to grow a market and network can pay for the devices with advertising and keeping costs low (compared to Bell's often expensive overhead) with leasing of hardware, and internet access.

I think the hardware is pretty nice, but a few tweaks to interface and security would make this much better. I'd love to know what kind of usage it gets, I doubt it is much. Those few travelers who don't have a cell phone or those who are interested in the "gadget" aspect of the phone will enjoy it, but I frankly would not be likely to use it. What about you? Would you use a device such as this when travelling? How about around your home town? Leave a comment below.