A Buck a Call From a Pay Phone?

If Bell Canada and Bell Aliant Inc. gets its way (which is almost ALWAYS does), a call from a payphone will cost $1.00.

The phone company is asking the CRTC to approve a doubling in the cost of cash calls from 50 cents and calls from a calling card or debit card from $1.00 to $2.00.

This is another gouging at the expense of hard-working Canadians who are forced to call using pay phones because they can’t afford a landline or cell phone.  But, if the cost of pay phones continue to go up, it might be cheaper to have a cell phone.

It was back in 2007 when they raised the rates from a quarter to 50 cents saying that they hadn’t raised the rates in 25 years and fewer consumers were using the pay phones so many of the units were not generating enough revenue to cover their replacement cost.  

Now, the company says the new increase is needed to keep up with the Royal Canadian Mint who is changing the loonie, which would force them to change their machines to accept them.

The emergence of cell phones has severely hurt the bottom line of pay phones and landlines but that is a good thing in my opinion.  In my travels, and hearing for others who travel the world, most of what we call “less-developed countries” work on a network of cell phones because it is cheaper than running phones lines across their lands.  This make total sense to me and wonder why we don’t do the same and take out the phone lines and completely go to a cellular way of communication.

If the CRTC allows them to increase the pay phone rates, I have a feeling they might lose the pay phone industry all together.  And if they think that will boost their cell and landline sales, I doubt it, because people know who was responsible in forcing them to shift from pay phones and with the competition in the cellular market today, I feel Bell could miss out.