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Maybe you used one at the airport to break it to your mom that your flight was delayed one stormy Christmas Eve. Or you relied on one at the subway station when you were stranded with a dead smartphone. Maybe you dialed one at the mall after forgetting exactly what ingredients your partner needed for a holiday feast.

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Like Coca-Cola and JPMorgan Chase, TD canned voice mail for 17,000 of its 55,000 Canadian employees this summer as part of its plan to modernize the workplace.





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Remembering the last time you used a payphone can be a nostalgic exercise, but the explosive growth in mobile phones has eroded their presence and utility over the past 20 years.

Payphones remain crucial for people facing economic or social hardship, as well as for those in emergency situations or conducting underground dealings, but 6,886 payphones died in the last year alone, according to a recent report from Canada’s telecom regulator.

As a result, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is taking a look at the payphone’s legacy and what’s in store for the remaining 66,997 on sidewalks and in high-traffic locations such as transportation hubs, malls and hospitals across the country — “endangered species in a concrete landscape,” as one payphone aficionado describes them.