  Newsmaker: It takes a loonie to make a payphone call  More
from Special to National Post  By Steve Kupferman  Phone booth
aﬁcionados received an unexpected jolt this week when it emerged
Bell Canada is trying to win the right, from the CRTC, to raise
the cash price of a local call from 50 cents to a full loonie.
Why won’t this matter for the average Torontonian? Let us count
the ways.  1 The cash price may not become a dollar, even if
Bell gets permission to raise it that high. In its application
to the CRTC, the company writes that it is seeking “increased
flexibility to experiment with different rates” (emphasis ours),
both to shore up profitability and to cover costs associated
with upgrading its pay phones so that they can accept the Royal
Canadian Mint’s new steel-plated loonies.  2 In its CRTC
application, Bell says that without increased rate flexibility,
it might be forced to decommission pay phones. Even if Bell were
to do that, it’s likely that Toronto would still be relatively
well served. The co