Cell Phone Tracking Devices in Phone Booths?

This link examines the installation of cell phone tracking devices in public telephone booths in New York City.  The original story here at this link.

Phone booths?  Do they still exist?  In my small city I don't know where I would go to find one.

Phone booths must be a dying breed.  However, even dying things can be monetized to squeeze the last bit of life blood money out of them.  One way to monetize them is for the phone booth owner to sell advertising space on the cell phone to a media company.  In this case, Titan.  Titan then monetizes that advertising space asset right by installing media tracking devices. 

Phone booths are a relic but an interesting one.  They exist in public places.  Their placement was based of availability to large numbers of passing people.  That is strategic location for a privately owned thing on public space probably leased by the city to the owner.  The booth has electricity as well as hard wire communication lines.  Are there such things as phone booths that have a pay phone but communicate by cellular?  Yes indeed.

Interesting!

There are even phone booths where you can stick your head in a box to make a call on your own cell phone.  Like a cone of silence.

Having rights to  public space place in a high traffic area is an asset.  Where in a public area could anyone seeking to capture bluetooth or near field radio transmission place reception devices for commercial purposes without a charge, fee or other city ordinance control??  Law enforcement does not have that problem.  They can put devices on street lamps.

Using the "human sign board" business model a person with a backpack of communication sensing devices and batteries could be paid to just stand on a corner all day to capture tracking information from passing personal devices.  Maybe  good way for street panhandlers to monetize their business.  To make money off data collection.

Devices could be covertly placed for commercial collection of tracking information and would be worth it if the cost of loss by discovery and removal was minimal.  On the other hand cities are a maze of private businesses fronting the sidewalk.  Any business could monetize its location by permitting installation of tracking devices in their business in proximity to the sidewalk.

Side walk hot dog stand operators could monetize their business location.

Why locate tracking devices in phone booths?  It seems like an elaborate way to track devices.  The tracking equipment could be placed in a parked car on the street.

Maybe there is a benefit to having a phone booth location for tracking devices but I don't see a good reason to use a phone booth.

In another blog entry I previously made regarding tracking in New York City there is a business that pays people with residences in high traffic areas to put cell phone cameras in their windows facing the street to gather visual data for mining.  That in conjunction with cell phone tracking might enhance the mining value.

This type of tracking is a geographically fixed position target.  Another tracking method is to have the tracker mobile, as in the trunk of a taxi that not only picks up device tracking information but adds GPS data to identify location.

Tracking is big business and there is a gold rush to pick up all the nuggets that are free for the gathering.

Gimbal Inc.  sells the devices/software.