pay phone story

Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

BT Marconi Neptune 800 Internet Payphone

The Marconi Neptune range, developed by GPT/Marconi around 2000, included the Neptune 200, 300, 400, 800 and 1000. Models ranged from conventional coin/card payphones to touchscreen Internet terminals offering email and web access. Neptune phones were deployed in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and the United States.

Name	Marconi Neptune 800 Internet Payphone
Date	c. 2002
Manufacturer	GPT Marconi
Usage	Booths

Development of the BT Marconi Neptune 800 Internet Payphone

The Marconi Neptune was a family of advanced public telephones developed around 2000 by GPT Payphone Systems, part of Marconi Communications. It was conceived as a modular range that could progress from conventional voice calling to SMS, e-mail and full public Internet access.
The principal versions included the Neptune 200, a voice payphone supporting analogue, ISDN and GSM network interfaces; the Neptune 300/300i, which supported voice and SMS and was available in card-only and coin/card configurations; the Neptune 400, adding a larger display and QWERTY keyboard for e-mail, SMS and text information; and the sophisticated Neptune 800 Webphone, with a 12.1-inch touchscreen, keyboard and trackball for Internet and e-mail access. BT also used a Neptune 1000, intended particularly for semi-supervised indoor locations.
The Neptune became particularly associated with BT in Britain, where around 2,000 Internet-enabled kiosks were planned and some 1,500 Neptune units had reportedly been deployed by 2003. The Netherlands’ KPN ordered approximately 6,000 Neptune 300 units, while Neptune equipment was also supplied to operators including Telefónica and Telecom Asia.
The Neptune 800 even reached New York, where TCC Teleplex deployed units offering telephone, Internet, e-mail and city-information services. Marconi also arranged Australian distribution through WebPoint, targeting hotels, railway stations and sporting venues.
The Neptune range represents one of the last ambitious attempts to reinvent the traditional payphone as a public multimedia and Internet terminal before widespread smartphones made the concept largely obsolete.

Below- examples in Ireland, NYC and Amsterdam