New York ( CNN ) -- As a symbol of communication , refuge or romantic longing , the pay phone is an enduring cultural icon . Witness John Cusack braving a downpour to call his girl in `` Say Anything ... , '' Tippi Hedren under attack in Hitchcock 's `` The Birds '' or Clark Kent , that intrepid reporter , dashing into a phone booth to become Superman . With the rise of mobile phones over the past decade , pay phones have been disappearing . New York City had a high of 35,000 pay phones in the late 1990s . Today , there are only about 11,400 , according to the city . Nationwide , the number of pay phones has dropped from approximately 2.1 million in 1999 to around 425,000 today . But thanks to some new initiatives , pay phones may not be doomed to fade from the urban landscape like penny-farthings and oil-lit street lamps . Anyone with a cell phone knows that connectivity is not always guaranteed -- especially not during emergencies , when networks are overloaded . In the wake of Superstorm Sandy , which pounded the Northeast in late October , many New Yorkers found themselves without power and without mobile service . To communicate with the rest of the world , they took to pay phones . `` I wanted to call my mom , but my cell phone was n't working . I remembered there were two pay phones on the corner of my street , '' said Ashley Freskos , 30 , who works in men 's fashion in Manhattan , and at the time , lived in the Lower East Side where electricity and mobile phone service were knocked out by the storm . `` I had n't really used a pay phone since I was 14 , before I got a cell phone . I did n't even know if they still worked , '' she said . `` My mom did n't even pick up ( at first ) when I called because she did n't recognize the number . '' Pay phone volume across New York City 's five boroughs rose tenfold during Sandy , said Peter Izzo of Van Wagner Communications , which operates 4,200 pay phones in the city . `` Pay phones are the last life line of communication for the poor in America , '' said Willard Nichols , president of the American Public Communications Council . More than 750 million calls are placed on pay phones per year , he said . `` There 's no question that pay phones are critical when there is an emergency , '' Nichols added . `` We saw in Sandy the same as Katrina . There were still pay phones working in New Orleans during the height of the storm when all other communication was out . '' When all hell breaks loose , a pay phone is a good bet . But to stay relevant , the pay phone of the future needs to offer valuable services at all times , not just during emergencies . So the city of New York is trying to give the humble pay phone an upgrade . In July the city created Wi-Fi hotspots at 10 payphone kiosks in three of its boroughs , the first step in a pilot program designed to make wireless access available to as many people as possible in the city . And this month Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new initiative the city hopes will rejuvenate the city 's remaining public pay phones . The Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge dares students , technologists , designers , policy experts and urban planners , to come up with new solutions to take advantage of the existing pay phone framework and shape the future of public communications infrastructure . `` We 're challenging our dynamic and ever-growing tech community to 'Re-Own the Phone ' and provide their ideas on what the future of payphones could entail , '' said Bloomberg . Several pilot programs in New York already use existing payphone infrastructure , from digital advertising on phone kiosks in Times Square to interactive touchscreens around Union Square . But the new contest hopes to create a new purpose for the pay phone . `` What 's unique about the pay phone network in New York is that the reliability of service is overwhelming -- and not just in hurricanes , '' said Izzo , citing the blackout of 2003 and the chaos of Sept. 11 , 2001 . Izzo credits the `` spider web '' like network of copper wire , paired with coaxial and fiber crossing underneath city streets , for the network 's durability . `` There 's no single 'choke point ' to disrupt the service , '' he said . `` It 's a matter of taking the existing infrastructure and making something new that people need . That copper wire is an old technology , but it still works . ''
With the rise of mobile phones over the past decade , pay phones have been disappearing . The last time I saw a pay phone was in my hometown when I went to visit family for Christmas. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy , many New Yorkers relied on pay phones . A new NYC initiative seeks to rejuvenate the city 's remaining public pay phones .