Telus vows to repair broken payphone in remote region of B.C.

Calling it “David versus Goliath” might be a stretch, but a small-town B.C. politician has caught the attention of a large corporation.

Telus has vowed to repair a remote payphone after the area’s local MP drew attention to the matter on social media.

“Can I get 100 RTs to convince @TELUS to finally fix the pay phone at the Rosswood General Store?” Taylor Backrach, the NDP MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, wrote on Twitter last Saturday (February 22). “Seems useful on a stretch of highway that still lacks cell service. Plus, old Bob misses it. #ruralcommunitiesmatter”

“Old Bob” is reportedly the constituent who first brought the damaged payphone to Backtrach’s attention, according to CTV News.

One of CTV’s weekend reporters, Jen St. Denis, shared the tweet with Telus, and Telus subsequently said it would fix the damaged infrastructure “as soon as possible”.

"We hope this is welcome news for old Bob,” Telus told CTV News.

https://twitter.com/taylorbachrach/status/1231317412932308993

Rosswood General Store is located in central B.C., about a 30-minute drive north of Terrace.

In July 2019, Georgia Straight blogger Stanley Q. Woodvine began mapping Metro Vancouver’s remaining payphones.

At the time of writing, Woodvine’s map had 55 entries for the city of Vancouver plus shorter lists for surrounding suburbs.