Vermont engineer revives pay phones for free calls in areas with poor cell service

TUNBRIDGE, Vt. (AP) — An electrical engineer by trade, Patrick Schlott has spent countless hours tinkering with new and old technology. But it wasn’t until he found himself living in rural Vermont that he realized his penchant for repairing old pay phones could provide a public service.

“I realized, wow, there’s no cell service for 10 miles (16 kilometers) in either direction,” he said. “The community could really benefit from something like this.”

Schlott, a full-time engineer at electric airplane manufacturing company BETA Technologies, decided to approach the owners of his local general store with the idea to install old pay phones around town and make them free for public use. After he explained that there would be no cost to the host, North Tunbridge General Store owners Mike and Lois Gross let Schlott install his first phone outside the store.

“Everyone’s pretty surprised, and they’re like, ‘Is that a real payphone? Does that really work?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but it doesn’t cost any money now,’” said store owner Mike Gross. “We’ve had people use it that broke down. It’s a great thing because service is so spotty in Vermont.”

The first free public phone installation was Schlott’s idea, but he says the two other locations, the Latham Library in Thetford and inside an informational booth in Randolph off Interstate 89, came from community members requesting the service.

“All the other phones so far have been people reaching out, which is pretty cool,” he said.

Schlott buys the old pay phones, which can range in cost from $100-$500, at flea markets, from internet listings or at auction and fixes them up in his basement workshop. All that’s needed to install one of his phones is an internet connection — no coins necessary.

“Basically, there’s a small piece of equipment that converts an internet telephone line to an analog line that these phones can operate off of,” he said.

Along with covering the costs, which are about $2-$3 a month for each phone line and less than $5 a month for calls, Schlott acts as the operator for each phone and can field or transfer calls, helping users when needed. If a user dials zero, the phone will ring Schlott’s personal cellphone, though he uses an app to keep his number private.

So far, the phone at the Latham Library location has seen the most use. According to Schlott, 370 calls have been made since the phone was installed five months ago, filling a need for students without cellphones to call their parents for after-school pickups.

Hannah McClain is a regular at the North Tunbridge General Store and says she finds comfort in knowing the phone is there whenever her 16-year-old daughters might need it.

“It does make me feel safer if the kids are out and about, that if they had an emergency up this way that they could stop and use this. I think these are a great service,” she said.

Schlott is seeing increased interest in the service, with another free phone install in the works at the Brownell Library in Essex. For now, he plans to continue covering the costs associated with each phone, but noted that may change as the project scales.

“It’s cool to see something retro that has that old-school appeal but also works. To actually hear it ring, to pick it up and have a dial tone, I think there’s real power in that,” he said. “And I don’t think they should end up in a landfill. They should be recycled and put to good use.”