About the Project

Options 1, 2 and 3

As well as repurposing decommissioned payphones, the RocketTel project also aims to bridge our society's digital divide. It's long been assumed that people will always have access to a smartphone, but this is not always the case. With everyday services and facilities increasingly moving online, certain groups of people are being excluded.

The 2020 payphone review by Populus stated that the second largest demographic who use public phones were the vulnerable and so for this reason, RocketTel has the facility to offer free calls and mailbox facilities for registered members but also direct access to support lines.

Option 4

At the heart of the RocketTel network is the Operator who manages everything. The operator loves to talk with people and is able to learn from the conversations it has. To find out more about this friendly AI chatbot, check out my TEDx talk here.

Option 5

This is a nice nod to previous attempts to help increase the usage of public payphones. Dial-a-Disc began in the 1960s and allowed people to dial a three digit number to listen to records of the popular hits at the time.

From a RocketTel phone, you don't need to remember a three digit number to listen to music, you just need to remember one. Five.

The Operator (see option 4 above) will select a random radio being streamed over the internet for you to listen too. If you're phoning from one of the themed 70s, 80s or 90s phone booths, the music selected will be in keeping with the decade of your booth.

Option 6

During the previous year volunteers around the country have been contributing to the RocketTel project by collecting active telephone number of payphones up and down the UK and as a result over three thousand numbers have been collected.

Dialling option six from a RocketTel phone will ring a single payphone at random. Will someone pick it up? What will you say?

There is a more serious side to the collecting of these numbers. Check out the Mental Health Awareness campaign in the Projects section.

Option 7

Before the RocketTel idea had even started to take shape, a previous project was building a tourism app for the city of Salisbury. You can download it here. Using this content, RocketTel is proposing to also turn the payphones into a tourist guide, telling you about the landmarks you can see from the telephone box. This option currently talks about a Salisbury landmark that's selected at random.

Option 8

Bob Ross brought joy to millions with his paintings. Now you can phone the Bob Ross line to hear some of his best known lessons in painting and life.

"We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."

Option 9

Do you have questions left unanswered in your life? Then never fear, Zoltar the great is here. Zoltar featured in the popular 80s film Big and could be found in arcades all around the world. Today, Zoltar machines are still out there in the wild and maybe you're one of the lucky few who have spotted him when visiting amusements and arcades.

But don't worry if you haven't been lucky enough to experience a Zoltar machine for yourself, you can now dial the great fortune teller from any RocketTel phone to hear some of his wise words spoken. See a demo.

Trust in Zoltar, he really does know all... apart from next week's lottery numbers.

RocketTel's aim is to repurpose decommissioned payphones, creating a new kind of telephone network that offers a wide range of features. You can learn more by pressing play and listening to the BBC interview.

Option 1: Free phone calls for registered members
Option 2: Free mailboxes for registered members
Option 3: Help and support lines
Option 4: Chat with Operator AI (Watch my TEDx talk)
Option 5: Dial-a-Disc
Option 6: Phone a random phone box
Option 7: The Salisbury tour guide
Option 8: The Bob Ross Happy Accident helpline
Option 9: Zoltar the fortune teller

You can read about the payphone conversion process here.

Want to Know More?

At the core of RocketTel is the AI operator. I have been coding chatbots for a number of years now and have even hosted a TED talk about them here. The chatbot now resides in the phone network but previous installations include fun projects such as Star Wars droids.