A glass box with a telephone inside. For those who have never seen one, this is what telephone booths once looked like. There were nearly 300,000 in France in the 2000s compared to a few today, all out of service and sometimes converted for other uses (book boxes, decoration, etc.).
But in Strasbourg, a “real” one could soon see the light of day again. “There will be a means of communication in it, that’s for sure,” promises Adrien Montagut, the co-founder of “Commown”. This cooperative society of collective interest (SCIC) has joined forces with Telecoop, a telecom operator also committed to more responsible digital technology, in this somewhat crazy project. And certainly still vague.
“We have to put everything in the conditional,” he insists. “We are only in the study phase and we still have many legal levers to raise, even if only that of installation in public spaces. » The fact remains that this famous cabin is in their boxes and that they hope to set up the first one “in 2025”.
Or precisely ? “In front of a school because we need to make parents and students aware of delaying the purchase of a first phone,” replies the thirty-year-old, defining this fight as one of the priorities. With that of the “fight against digital precarity” and “cultural mediation”.
Free communications
In this sense, the future “box” could also be equipped with a touchscreen tool to access the web. “But not to go look at your accounts or emails because some might forget to log out. We could instead offer an access point to shared knowledge, like going to Wikipedia for example,” explains Adrien Montagut.
Last point, “the cabin would above all be an urban communication tool to raise awareness of the environmental and social issues of digital technology and direct towards local actors who propose solutions”, write Commown and Telecoop in their call for project financing. The two also agree, even before the final economic model is defined, that communications will be free.
And what will the cabins look like? “We imagine them like those before and with upcycled materials,” explains the Alsatian, whose cooperative is preparing a “first ephemeral model”. It will be presented during the European Responsible Digital Week, “certainly on the Malraux peninsula” in mid-June. The opportunity to take another look at these now anachronistic glass boxes. But perhaps not without a future.