Salmon Arm’s last payphone will soon be out of service – permanently.
On Wednesday, March 2, the City of Salmon Arm notified residents that Telus will be removing the last payphone in the city on April 26. The reason given: a decline in usage.
The phone is located next to the uptown Tim Hortons on 9th Avenue NE, in a booth by the SASCU ATM machine.
Not surprisingly, with the proliferation of cell phone users, the number of payphones and their use in Canada has been in steady decline. In 2015, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission found that while a payphone service continued to be in the public interest, the “service is not relied upon to the same extent as in prior years.” At the same time, the cost of providing payphone service exceeded revenues.
Read more: Payphones: A dying fad in the Okanagan
lachlan@saobserver.net
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