Victoria residents think putting pay phones back on the streets would be a great option when cell phone service is down.
After an outage at Rogers Communications took out cell service and internet access for millions of Canadians Friday, people in Victoria wondering what other options they have if it happens again.
“Everything is right on the phone. Without that then I guess we are back to flying pigeons and notes on birds,” said Nick Correia, a Victoria resident.
In an emergency situation, Victoria’s Jean Fluet said he’s become so reliant on his cell phone that he wouldn’t really know what to do.
“Without 9-1-1 and no phone, you would hope someone around would help if you needed it,” Fluet said.
While public pay phones offer a form of communication, they are hard to find in Victoria.
The Victoria Disability Resource Centre compiled a list of working pay phones in the city, with one at the Royal B.C. Museum, the Bay Centre and Greater Victoria Public Library on Broughton Street.
It also added a list of free public phones that can be used in an emergency.
Emily Deslaurier, who was affected by the Rogers outage, said pay phones would made a great resource in situations like that.
“I think it would be great in busy areas,” she added.
Fluet said it would be good to see more pay phones on the streets again, adding he would also like to see more cell phone provider options.
“I’d like to see us not go to a single unit provider. I would like to see us have more diversity so we don’t run the risk of one provider have so much control over our systems,” Fluet added.
Friday’s outage lasted about 15 hours, also knocking out access to emergency services and debit payment options.
Read More: Rogers starts restoring service after outage, CEO apologizes to customers
Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has told telecom companies to reach agreements within 60 days on emergency roaming, assisting each other during outages and a communication protocol to better inform Canadians and authorities during emergencies.
He also says the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will investigate the Rogers outage.
With files from Canadian Press.
Mackenzie Read
