August 14, 2009                                           

 

 

 

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved an application from Northwestel to increase public pay telephone rates in the North.

 

Pay phones in Northwestel’s operating area currently cost 25 cents per call. Effective August 18^th, 2009 rates for local calls will increase to 50 cents per call.  The last increase in pay phone rates occurred in November, 1985 when the price changed from 10 cents to 25 cents per local call.

 

“The rate increase is appropriate for several reasons,” said Paul Flaherty, Northwestel President and Chief Executive Officer. “Pay phone rates have remained the same for almost a quarter of a century. Since that time, costs for providing pay phone service have kept pace with inflation and have increased significantly. Currently, pay phone revenues do not fully cover the costs of providing the service. This increase will reduce the loss associated with pay phone service.”

 

“In addition, we’ve found that with increased cellular coverage across the North, pay phones are used much less than in the past, which has made it much more challenging to maintain our pay phone system at the current rates,” added Flaherty.

 

The pay phone rate increase in the North will be consistent with what has been happening in most other parts of the country. Other telecommunications companies in Canada have already increased the cost of a pay phone call to 50 cents, including Bell, Aliant, MTS and SaskTel.