Save the payphones?: Why one expert says they can't all disappear

CTV National News: Relics of communication Kathy Le takes a look at the humble payphone and the arguments raised to keep them for some Canadians who need them.

CALGARY — These days, it’s gotten increasingly rare to spot a payphone in any community across the country, but one expert says it's important to keep them from disappearing altogether.

In 2013, there were 84,870 payphones nationwide, according to data from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), an independent public authority and regulator. By 2022, that number had dropped to less than a quarter of that, with 18,994 tallied.

CTV News spoke to various people in Calgary about the last time they saw a payphone.

“I’m sure I saw one in the last few weeks, but I can’t remember off the top of my head," one man said.

Another woman said “I don’t think I really notice them at all."

One of Canada's next payphones scheduled to disappear is located at Spray Lakes Provincial Park in the community of Kananaskis Country, Alta. The area is a popular recreational area that does not have cell service. A free community phone will replace the payphone.

“I understand that it’s a challenge to make them pay for themselves,” said John Lawford with the Public interest Advocacy Centre based in Ottawa.

In fact, CRTC data shows that the payphone revenue has plummeted in the last decade alone, totalling $3.6 million in 2022, down from $47.4 million in 2013. The continuing rise in cellphone use has correlated with the decline of payphone demand.

Still, Lawford says payphones are a necessity; one that shouldn’t completely disappear.

“What are we going to do to make sure that people that can't afford the latest cell phone, or they're out of money that month — when they can't use their phone, or they're not from the country, or they're passing through because they're seasonal workers; like, what are you going to do when they need to communicate?”

Furthermore, Lawford says that payphones can be more reliable than cellphone infrastructure amid "all the chaos" of emergency situations like wildfires and extreme weather events.

New York City removed its last public payphone in 2022. Lawford says they were replaced with wifi hotspots that also has a calling function.

“The company keeps the location of the payphone and then just puts up this extra functionality and sometimes with touch screens to help tourists,” he said.

In Canada, Lawford says telecommunication companies need to figure out a way to monetize the existing payphones, so that some can still be kept.

“I think there’s a form of payphone that should go forward in the future. What it’s going to look like, I don’t know,” he said.