page_title: Payphone
section_title: Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Payphone / Countries / Canada
caption_attribution_description: English: A Bell pay phone.
context_page_description: A payphone is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic outdoor areas, with pre-payment by inserting money or by billing a credit or debit card, or a telephone card. Prepaid calling cards also facilitate establishing a call by first calling the provided toll-free telephone number, entering the card account number and PIN, then the desired telephone number. An equipment usage fee may be charged as additional units, minutes or tariff fee to the collect/third-party, debit, credit, telephone or prepaid calling card when used at payphones. By agreement with the landlord, either the phone company pays rent for the location and keeps the revenue, or the landlord pays rent for the phone and shares the revenue.
  Payphones are often found in public places to contribute to the notion of universal access to basic communication services. One thesis, written as early as 2003, recognised this as a digital divide problem.
  In the 20th century, payphones in some countries, such as Spain, used token coins, available for sale at a local retailer, to activate pay phones, instead of legal tender coins.
context_section_description: 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. Pay phones in Alberta were 35 cents for a time, but in most jurisdictions the price simply doubled. 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."
caption: Bell Canada payphone
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