This paper concerns an application project for the use of a speech recognition system in public phones. The project is jointly run by the CNET and the French company CROUZET. An evaluation should be forthcoming in early 1988 with ten prototypes of public phones with voice access, located in different areas around France. This paper describes the main features of these phones: the vocal dialogue, the speaker-independent recognition system, the hand-free dialer. The preliminary results obtained in simulation and real-life prototypes will also be given.