I'm somewhat acquainted with one of the guys running this effort, and it's really been amazing to see it go from "unknown niche hobby project" to "all over the news" practically overnight. Nobody is sure why the media seized on it so much, but in the course of a week or two, it went from completely obscure, to being reported on by a few Internet-based techy/nerdy media outlets, to being talked about by the mainstream news (NBC!). I guess people are more interested in payphones than expected.

Though it does bum me out that a typical comment section on the mainstream news articles is 30% "why is the government spending money on this? Lower my taxes!!" It's a completely volunteer project guys, there is no government money involved... ah well.