BillNBC reporting on a guy on Vermont refurbishing payphones and setting them up on cell dead zones for free. I kinda want to give him all my money. Thats is fucking awesome.
David Chartier@Sempf Wait. So he’s putting a cell radio in pay phone boxes then sets them up to make calls for free? That’s wild!
@chartier They didn't get into the tech details, but it looked that way to me from the video of him working. Arduino, I think. Dunno why he wouldn't use a raspberry pi but you use what you know, you know?
liquidlampLooks like these are being setup in libraries/stores/etc where cell service is bad, so I dont think hes using a cell modem.
I'm betting hes connecting to the local buildings wifi and routing calls that way via VOIP, voice over IP. So these look like a simultaneous donation, his payphone/tech/effort and the locations power/internet.
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK@Sempf @chartier he may use an Arduino to control the power/signalling to the payphones and other linked equipment.
He appears to be using as much of the original tech as possible - payphones need various extra signalling on top of standard analogue lines - and maybe some other type of ATA (analogue telephone adapter) for the VOIP end (a commercial off the shelf one would be easiest way of dealing with things like battery and ringing voltage, and I believe some of the Grandstream ones even handle loop disconnect (pulse/rotary) dialling).
groff