Futel: How to Exit the Matrix in PDX
Published 2025-01-25🎶 Vibes: “Payphone” by Maroon 5, as covered by Walk Off The Earth
An Exit from the Matrix | 2025-01-25 | FUJIFILM X-T4.
Futel Phone in PDX | 2025-01-25 | FUJIFILM X-T4.
It’s for you | 2025-01-25 | FUJIFILM X-T4.
Searching for an exit to the Matrix in PDX? Futel offers these FREE payphones around town!
They are fully functional and even have a voicemail system that allows the user to access messages that may have been left for them. I love their ethos:
At Futel, we believe in the preservation of public telephone hardware as a means of providing access to the agora for everybody, and toward that goal we are privileged to provide free telephone calls, voicemail, and telephone-mediated services. We do not judge the motivations of our users, or who they choose to call; if they don’t have someone to call, we can provide a presence on the other end. Denial of telephony services has long been a tactic used against undesirable populations, and our devices will counteract that. – https://futel.net/about/
I’m old enough to have made a few calls on payphones as a kid, and it’s really cool to see this project in the wild, especially as a free service.
It was hard to find info, even on r/portland and r/askportland about working payphones and Futel is a gem!