The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has prohibited all incumbent local exchange carriers from removing the last payphone in a community pending the conclusion of its fact-finding process initiated in its Telecom Notice of Consultation 2013-337 and, if required, any related follow-up process. At the core of this issue is the public interest obligations of telecommunications companies, acquired in exchange for the rights and privileges they are afforded by the people of Canada to conduct their businesses. Solutions to the problem of meeting the basic needs of some Canadians that may go unmet as a result of a decline in the size of the network of payphones need to be found.