But the act's remit extends only to the public telephone network, which was defined in a recent House of Lords judgment as ending at the wall socket.

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"New York City's public pay telephone network has incredible potential, " said Chief Information and Innovation Officer Merchant.

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Doesn't matter what kind of device the message is going to (wireline phones, mobile phones, PDAs or computers) or whether the message has to travel over the Internet or the public switched telephone network, for example.

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