But there's more to PhilTel, the project launched this year by Mike Dank, a 31-year-old software engineer who lives in Springfield, Delaware County, and Naveen Albert, 21, a senior computer engineering major at the University of Pennsylvania.Iffy Books opened in July 2021 and specializes in books and events on hacking, gardening, and generally "empowering people to be less reliant on big tech companies," its website says.Steve McLaughlin, the owner of Iffy Books, where he hosts workshops on things like bleeding control basics, programming, and circuit-building, described the new phone as "an experiment with a shared resource."It was not lost on the engineers and programmers at Iffy Books that the throwback device they were celebrating relies on the sort of computer networks some of them have grown wary of in their jobs.Albert, Dank's cofounder, said he doesn't have a cell phone and depends on pay phones when he's not at home with access to his traditional landline phone, which has better sound quality and can be used for decades without needing to be replaced, he said."