Came across a Public Bell Telephone Booth in my Travels today. I looked up some Stats from Wikipedia as these seem to be rare and harder to find. It is interesting to note that the CRTC put a moratorium on the removal of Public Pay Phones in 2013. I know we had several Public Pay Phones within a few blocks of our house, that are now gone.
Not sure which ones I like better. The colour or black and white. So here they are for comparison.
Canadian Pay Phone History (Wikipedia )
Most payphones in Canada are owned and operated by large telecom providers such as Bell, Telus, and SaskTel. In the last 20 years, customer-owned coin-operated telephones (COCOT) have also appeared in the market, but their numbers are smaller due to the emergence of mobile phones.
The cost of most local payphone calls is 50 cents CAD, having increased from 25 cents since 2007. Newer phones allow users to use calling cards and credit cards. For coin-paid long distance, COCOTs are less expensive for short calls (typically $1 for three minutes) than incumbent providers (whose rates start near $5 for the first minute).
Dialing 0 for the operator and 911 calls are still free.
The Toronto Transit Commission deploys payphones on all subway platforms as a safety precaution; a blue “Crisis Link” button on 141 payphones connects directly with Distress Centres of Canada as a free suicide prevention measure.
As of 2013, there were about 70,000 payphones across the country.
In 2013, the CRTC issued a temporary moratorium on the removal of payphones in small communities.
In September 2015, the CRTC remarked that “32 percent of Canadians used a payphone at least once in the past year,” and that they are used “as a last resort in times of inconvenience and emergency.“
