Free Phone at Burning Man

Note: This was the page of instructions pointed to by a URL on the phone itself.

• The Playa Phone Booth
• Experience on the Playa
• Building It
• Descriptions and Maps of where people called
• The Instructions Page
• Gallery of Phone Users
• Voicemails left for the Playa

assembled.jpg (683 x 1024 - 66K)

Feel free to use the phone to call anybody in the world. Dialing is like any other phone, but there are no local "7 digit" calls. (If you have a number to call in Gerlach or anywhere else in the USA or Canada, dial 1 + area code + number.)

Here are some rules we would appreciate you following:

• Keep your calls short if other people are waiting. Under 5 minutes especially if 2 or more are waiting. You can go to the back of the line to continue.
• Your voice is flying through the Vault of Heaven. This means it might break up sometimes, and it also means there is a long delay time between when you speak and when your party hears you. You may want to talk "walkie-talkie style" -- saying "over" when done.
• If you say, "Guess where I'm calling from? Burning Man!" you must immediately relinquish to phone to the next person in line.
• Folks from Camp Save-the-Man can but in at any time.
• When the phone is located near a camp, keep loud voices down from 2 AM to 10 AM.
• Avoid calling really expensive countries or mobile phones in countries where the caller pays a high fee to call mobile numbers.
• Voice quality is hurt when people do very heavy internet activity. So when you're on your laptop, keep it to a minimum, especially large uploads. Instead of uploading photos, consider burning them to CD.
• No need to use a calling card. The calls are a gift.

Privacy

We will get a log of calls made, though we probably won't know who made them. The calls go over unencrypted radio, so in theory people sniffing the local network could listen.

Can it receive calls?

The phone can be called at 1-213-634-xxxx. The project has nothing to do with Los Angeles, that just happens to be where we got the number. (No Bay Area numbers were available, and LA is the #2 source of Burners.) Only call it between Monday, Aug. 30th and Monday, Sept. 6th, please!

Of course, if people call this, nobody knows who will answer. We won't be answering it. People walking by might, and you can ask them to try to find somebody and leave a message. Or they can take a message to the Black Rock Post Office and those folks will try to deliver it -- if you meet their requirements!

Late at night, and when the phone is busy, callers will get voice mail.

How does this work?

Hidden in the phone is a Voice-over-internet box and a wireless Ethernet interface. This goes over the Black Rock wireless internet (maintained by Clif Cox of The Embassy) to a satellite dish (provided by John Gilmore of the Embassy) which bounces it up to space and back to the internet. The phone is a standard payphone.

You can also read our page on on the construction of the phone and the rest of its story.

Who did this?

Brad Templeton organized the project and put together the electronics and the graphics. Brent Chapman and JC Dill provided the physical Pay Phone, testing, assembly and logistics. The kind folks at BroadVoice provided the free long distance service. Broadvoice provide broadband based phone service. Brent, Brad and JC are in Camp Save-the-Man at 4:44 and Mercuy, a sub-camp of the Embassy. You may also know Brad for his giant wall of panoramic photos, located at 4:44 and Esplanade.

Why did the phone move?

We built it because we like the surreal image of an ordinary pay phone sitting in a totally out-of-the-ordinary remote place, exactly where you don't expect to find it, except it works and it's free. As such we like the idea of seeing reactions to it in different settings -- on streets, in open playa, etc.