Phone booths are relics of the past, but what if you need to make a call?

September 15th, 2009 by Dan Seyer | located in Features | trackback

I was once late for a meeting with a business colleague in San Francisco, and I’d forgotten to charge my cell phone. I needed to call my colleague to let him know I was running late and suggest an alternate meeting place, but by the time I emerged from the Powell Street BART station downtown, my cell phone was completely dead.

I thought about asking a sympathetic stranger if I could borrow their phone to make a quick local call, but I realized I didn’t know my colleague’s number—that info was stored in my now unresponsive cell phone. Then I spotted the Apple store on the corner at Stockton and Ellis. Bingo. I went in, logged into my Ribbit Mobile account from one of Apple’s display laptops, and called my colleague using my Ribbit Web phone. No one in the store batted an eye as I conducted my quick conversation in a subdued, casual voice.

The experience got me thinking about other public places I might be able to make a call online, should the need arise. Wifi cafes are an obvious choice, but only those that actually have computers available for public use. And wifi cafes can be noisy, as can computer stores. But what about public libraries and hotel business centers? Not only are those places potentially quiet, pleasant places to jump online and make a quick Web call, they’re usually free. In fact some hotels, like the Good Hotel in San Francisco’s SOMA district, host free Internet stations [pictured] right in the lobby. Shhh. Might want to keep that one under your hat.

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