After Hurricane Sandy, with the power out and smartphone batteries dead, many New Yorkers lined up to use a device they had likely not touched in years - a payphone.

These payphones were convenient at the time, but for the most part, they are now largely underused. As a result, the city of New York has been looking for more modern options for these payphones, and officials recently approved a plan to turn a number of them into touch-screen information kiosks.

A company known as City 24/7, in partnership with Cisco, has received approval to turn 250 payphones throughout New York City into these interactive booths.

"City 24/7 is a revolutionary communications system designed for the 21st century, debuting in the country's most tech-savvy city, expanding nationwide and across the globe," the company said on its website. "People today expect information instantly; City 24/7 provides it. It is our goal to make public communications more accessible to everyone, in every place."

Back in July, New York City officials put out a call for ideas on how best to utilize aging payphones. Existing payphone contracts, first signed in 1999, end in Oct. 2014, and the city wanted innovative ideas on how best to use them in the digital age.

Among the submitted proposals was one from City 24/7. CEO Tom Touchet discussed a "Payphone of the Future" that would "incorporate touch, voice, and audio technology to provide passersby with a wide array of hyper-local (a couple square city blocks) information, services, and offerings in real time." The payphones would also display security alerts for the immediate area and allow for video calls to emergency responders.

The data would also be available via Wi-Fi on nearby smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers, Touchet said.

For those with disabilities, City 24/7 said the revamped payphones would include: an induction loop and headphone jacks for the hearing impaired, a high-contrast screen mode for the sight impaired, visual recognition for people with seeing eye dogs and walking canes, "Wayfinder" key-fob access and mobile application for the blind, and a flip screen for people in wheelchairs.

The city could make money off these devices via advertising, transaction fees, promotions, and data aggregation. At this point, the city gets 36 percent of revenue generated from ads on sidewalk payphone enclosures and 10 percent of payphone usage revenues generated from curbside payphones. The city will likely seek higher fees on more modern devices, it said.

Touchet did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he told GigaOm that several of these payphones are now live across the city, including those at 12th & Broadway and 3rd Ave & 10th St. Touchet said the company should be able to manage several installs per day and complete the rollout within a few months.

According to the city, there are currently about 10,000 payphone installations, or 13,000 individual phones - not including those installed in the subways or in private/public buildings. The city does not plan to do away with all payphones; in 2011, 27 million calls were made on city payphones (or about six calls per phone, per day), not including 911.

"There is also still significant usage of sidewalk payphones to place 911 calls," the city said. "Recent figures show that there were 8,264 calls made to 911 from sidewalk payphones in New York City during a one-week period in December 2011. As such, the City may still need phones in at least some locations on City sidewalks."

In July, the city to bring free public Wi-Fi to payphone kiosks throughout the five boroughs. That included 10 locations in three boroughs with Wi-Fi service, including two in Brooklyn, one in Queens, and seven in Manhattan.