Payphones in Canada may soon be an endangered species thanks to CRTC decision

The next time you're strolling down the street, keep an eye out an endangered species: the pay telephone.

A decision this week by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to deny BCE Inc. (Bell Canada) permission to double the charge for a payphone call to one dollar from 50 cents (or $2 from $1 if paying by credit or phone card) has raised the spectre that a cultural icon of the 20th century will largely disappear.

Bell wanted the rate increase to offset the declining revenue from its network of payphones because most Canadians now carry mobile phones, the Globe and Mail reports.

The company said it collects about $700 a year on average from each payphone, compared with $1,000 five years ago. Bell claimed it was costing more to maintain the phones that they were bringing in.

The Toronto Star notes there are about 70,000 payphones in Canada. But in your sidewalk stroll you'd be hard pressed to find one. It used to be phone booths, and later those now familiar open units, were a common sight every block or two. Public buildings and airports had banks of them.

[ Related: $1 pay phone calls? CRTC says 'No' ]

By contrast, there are 27 million active mobile devices in Canada for a population of 34 million, Rob Lewis noted in a May post on TechVibes.com.

If someone has a cellphone, a payphone is useless," he contended. "Even if a user lost his device, or their battery died, a friend or nearby stranger would be nearly guaranteed to have a working cellphone on hand."

A reporter the Star sent to Union Station, the downtown rail and commuter transportation hub found only seven people using one of the 35 payphones on the GO commuter train concourse over a two-hour period. Most pay-phone stalls were used many as resting places by tired travellers.

But have we really reached the point that we can bid the payphone goodbye?

As Lewis points out, the consequence of heavy mobile-phone penetration (intended or otherwise) is that payphones become less economically viable and perhaps drive more people to buy cellphones.

"People who don't care about apps or texting and just need to make a couple of calls per month could use a local pay phone for a fraction of the cost of a fully fledged wireless bill," he said.

And there are those who simply can't afford even a pay-as-you go mobile, who perhaps don't even have a land line at home, or a home for that matter. For them, payphones could be an important lifeline.

We are also a big country with vast areas that don't have solid cellphone coverage. What if you're off the beaten track, at a remote hamlet, say, where your mobile may be little more than a paperweight?

And payphones provide free access to 911 services if you don't have a mobile.

The Wall Street Journal noted New Yorkers found payphones were lifesavers during Hurricane Sandy when wholesale power outages rendered the cell network unreliable.

The Globe reported the CRTC turned down Bell's request for a price increase out of concern that would put them out of reach for the poor, who need them most.

[ Related: Bell payphones: Rate increases target those most vulnerable ]

But with that rejection, the regulator launched a consultation asking for public feedback on the future of the pay-phone network.

"With this notice, the commission initiates a proceeding to collect information on the current role that payphones play in the Canadian communications system, including the extent to which Canadians rely on payphones, and the effects, if any, that further payphone removals and possible rate increases may have on Canadians," the CRTC said in its call for comments.

The regulator noted phone companies aren't obliged to provide payphones.

"Payphone service is offered at the discretion of the payphone provider, in that it is the provider who decides the location and number of payphones available in any area."

The commission said it will follow up with a review to "consider the appropriateness of prohibiting, on an interim basis, the removal of the last payphone in a community," and

"collect information on the current role that payphones play in the Canadian communications system, including the extent to which Canadians rely on payphones, and the effects, if any, that further payphone removals and possible rate increases may have on Canadians."