Susan Crawford writes: The homely pay phones of New York City are ghostly, graffiti-scarred reminders of an earlier era. But they could play a role in the city’s digital environment if New York gets its priorities straight. The crucial step is for the city to treat these pay phones as it does its bridges or trees: like basic infrastructure, not just opportunities for short-term revenue.

Last week, New York received bids from companies interested in replacing the nearly 10,000 payphones throughout the five boroughs with upgraded, attractive structures. The city is calling for free public Wi-Fi, among other amenities, to be provided by the winning bidder.  The city already has free Wi-Fi hot spots in many of its parks, run by AT&T Inc. or Cablevision Systems Corp. The problem is that those hot spots don’t offer very good service: They are connected to low-capacity lines, making anything other than slowly downloading e-mail a frustrating experience.

The city has an opportunity to use its pay phones to change this picture. The pay-phone franchise deal should be part of a larger commitment by the city to connect every snazzy new pay-phone structure to reasonably priced open fiber lines regulated by the city. The successful bidder’s obligation to provide truly public (and free) Wi-Fi hot spots in exchange for the opportunity to advertise its brand would be a winning combination for citizens and visitors alike.

Only with fiber will the new structures be able to handle data-heavy uploads and downloads as well as low-bandwidth e-mail checking. Result: the ability for people standing near the new pay phones to be part of the 21st-century Internet. Cities around the globe have free Wi-Fi; it is a standard utility, like public toilets and a functioning public transport system. If we do this right, tourists and residents won’t need to subscribe to Comcast in order to watch or upload video — whether for entertainment or emergency purposes. (Another entry on the wish list: charging stations for handheld devices.)

New York will need to make a trade-off. Right now, the city is hoping this project will be a moneymaker right off the bat, and it is planning no investments or contributions of its own. That may not be feasible.

These new kiosks will be basic infrastructure for the city. They should be beacons of information for tourists and neighborhoods, stations of light and power for all of us (powered by solar energy, if possible, in preparation for the next Hurricane Sandy), and homes of ample, free connectivity. That will take the city’s collaboration. The city’s priority should be its long-term health and sustainability rather than its short-term profits.