For anyone living in Windsor, say around 1887, a five-minute telephone call to Hantsport or Brooklyn would have cost them 20 cents. On the other hand, if one had lived in Falmouth and called Windsor or Hantsport, the charge for five minutes was 15 cents.

According to the Hants and Halifax Telephone Company, these calls were considered long-distance. The Company’s rate sheet, published by Ivan Smith in his Nova Scotia History Index (now inactive) noted also that telegraph service was available, at a charge of 15 cents per 10 words.

In contrast, with my smartphone and for about 20 odd dollars a month, I have unlimited calling anywhere in Canada, and no time limit on the calls.

But I digress. The point is that by today’s standards, the cost of telephone calls in the 1880s was expensive – if you consider that making a dollar or so a day in that period was excellent pay.