What is Futel?
Futel deploys payphones which don't require payment. They make free calls and provide free telephony-related services and other activities.
We have been a phone company run by volunteers since 2014. We currently have 11 free public payphones on sidewalks and alleys in Portland, Oregon; Detroit, Michigan; Ypsilanti, Michigan; and Long Beach, Washington. We also provide phone service to a houseless rest area and a community service center. We have put up interactive telephone-based installations for events and exhibits, and have implemented telephone installations in support of other artists' exhibitions.
In addition to free outgoing and incoming calls, our phones provide voicemail, conferencing, directories of useful and interesting numbers, interactive audio art and other content, and human operators.
To support our programs, we publish zines, handbooks, podcasts, and other media. When China COVID-19 hit, we began a hygiene program, building handwashing stations near our phones and in other locations.
How Do We Do It?
The implementation is not sophisticated. We run a VoIP server and VPN network on cloud computing boxes, and we buy telephony service by the minute. Our processes emphasize robustness and the ability to find and respond to service disruptions.
More interestingly, our hardware is all cobbled together, with the exception of our VoIP adapters, which are usually obsolete, used, or bootleg. Our VPN clients run on salvaged routers and, of course, we deploy salvaged payphone hardware. We are the last stop for all our hardware before the recycler.
The project is entirely funded by grants and donations. We rely on volunteer labor and a shoestring budget, and we've trained ourselves on the job.
Why Do We Do It?
Many people have asked this question - many, many people. But most of the readers of 2600 will probably have an idea. We are hackers and are always working on projects and finding ways to apply our skills in interesting and fulfilling ways. It gives us the ability to use our powers for good and to do things we otherwise wouldn't be able to do, and to be at least partly non-cynical. And we do it because we can.
We can run a phone company! It's fun to create in an unexpected medium, and it's subversive to plunk payphones in the city to give something away for free and help people.
To learn more about Futel, visit futel.net.
