Phone booths renovated as senior-friendly facilities
Five hundred public telephone booths across Shanghai will be renovated into senior-friendly facilities by the end of this year.
The city released a Hello Telephone booth on Monday. The digital telephone booth, half enclosed and with a trendy appearance, attracted onlookers upon its debut.
The booth is equipped with a high-definition screen and smart cameras. Users can choose one-button taxi-hailing and free phone services after scanning their faces there.
It especially caters to seniors who don't have a mobile phone but have wandered off. As long as their basic information has been recorded in the system, they can wait for home return after scanning their faces.
The digital telephone booth is the first of its kind in China.
As part of the smart city project, Shanghai Telecom has planned to renovate 1,000 old telephone booths within three years. By the end of 2023, there will be 500 elderly-friendly digital booths and by the end of 2025, the number will rise to 1,000.
In addition, the company also released a senior-friendly hotline "114," used for senior services, including taxi hailing, non-emergency transfer and health check, as well as a senior-friendly network.
The booth, hotline and network services are now under trial in seven subdistricts, including Zhenru Town in Putuo District and the Jiangsu Road Subdistrict in Changning District.
