OTI is on OATH’s list of enforcement agencies. In practice it does one narrow thing: public pay phones on city streets. That includes the LinkNYC kiosks that replaced them, which get charged under the payphone rules because there is no LinkNYC code.
We include it so the list is complete. Realistically almost nobody reading this will ever get one. OTI wrote 483 summonses in 2019, and fewer than ten a year since 2024. Nearly all the recent ones went to a single company.
Who pays
The owner or permit holder of the installation. Not the property owner, and not whoever installed it.
The code makes that owner responsible for what its employees, agents and contractors do. Transportation Department officers can write these too.
What it costs
| What happened | Fine |
|---|---|
| Installing or running a payphone on a street without a permit | Misdemeanour. Up to $10,000 and/or 30 days, plus civil fines |
| Repeatedly failing to provide service, or no free 24-hour 911 | Up to $2,500 each. Every day is a separate offence |
| Any other breach of the rules, a permit term, or a commissioner’s rule | Up to $1,000 each. Every day separate |
| Removing the city’s disabling device, or damaging its notice | Misdemeanour. Up to $10,000 and/or 30 days |
The city can also bill you for removal, repair and restoration on top of the fine.
The charges that actually show up are ordinary: a phone that does not work, a missing sign, advertising that is not allowed on the housing, or no permit.
If you did get one
The daily-offence structure is what makes these dangerous. A problem left in place for a month is thirty violations, not one.
The normal OATH deadlines apply. See how an OATH hearing works.