Bell Canada and Bell Aliant Inc. may be hiking the cost of using a payphone from 50 cents to $1, but locally TBayTel has no intentions of following suit.
Earlier this week a spokesman for the municipally owned utility said the company’s 700 payphones scattered throughout the city and surrounding area will remain at half-a-dollar to use for the foreseeable future, despite a rapid growth in users abandoning payphones for cellular units.
“TBayTel has no plans on increasing our payphone price,” Barry Streib said.
Though usage is down, they are by no means obsolete, he added.
“People are still using payphones. Are they using them as much as they were using them before? Probably not, with cell phone usage, most people have a cell phone. But again, pay phones are important because they are a part of what we bring to the community, to allow those who need to use a phone, in whatever situation, whether it’s a emergency or not, out pay phones are out there for the public to use,” Streib said.
“They’re in many public places and they’re certainly along our streets to ensure that people have access to a telephone.”
Bell Canada and Bell Aliant Inc. has applied to the CRTC for the rate increase. A decision will be made once their request has been heard.
