Good Phone Project

We provide FREE VoIP phone calls and voicemail across our entire network using repurposed payphones in our community.

Our first phone is live! In August 2024, we installed our first Good Phone inside the Father Tracy Advocacy Center.

The Good Phone Project is a public-service effort to provide free VoIP phone service and high-speed WiFi to Monroe County residents. This is done through repurposing payphones into free phones for all. For communities in need, the Good Phones serve as a lifeline for individuals forging their path from digital surviving toward digital thriving. For all communities, Good Phone provides a publicly accessible platform to ensure all individuals have the opportunity to connect to the people and the digital resources they need.

This project started with photographer Eric Kunsman's Felicific Calculus project that chronicles the 1,455 payphones left in Monroe County, New York. Kunsman pulled in digital scholarship librarian Rebekah Walker to build interactive visuals like maps that contextualize the photographs, and Dr. Janelle Duda-Banwar joined the team as a community-focused social science researcher. The next phase of the project pulled in project consultant Michael Riordan to strategically guide the team in meeting our objectives.

For more information, visit: https://www.rochesterpayphones.com/