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Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 276, 21 November 1928, Page 7

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WIRELESS TELEPHONE

Service To Australia In About A Year.

EXPERIMENTS BEING MADE.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.* (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, November 20. Though it was not mentioned in the Imperial Telegraph Bill the Australian Press Association has obtained official confirmation that inter-Empire wireless telephony will be reserved for control by the Post Office and has not been handed over to the merger company. The fact emerges that the introduction to Australia is at least twelve months distant.

The British Post Office, attei observation of the working of the beam telegraph}' circuits, is convinced that telephony to Australia should be by a soparato beam, because lower aerials are generally cheaper. It has a trial transmitter ready and awaits Australia's preparedness for the experiment. If this is successful it will take nearly a year to manufacture a permanent plant of transmitters. No device has hitherto been discovered to overcome the fading in the face of which there is a big doubt if telephony would have a commercial appeal in Australia.

On November 19 it was stated that a short machinery bill had been circulated in the House of Commons to sanction, as from April 1, 1928, the sale of the Pacific and West Indies Imperial cables to the Communication Company, in terms of the Imperial Wireless Conference's recommendations, as far as Britain was concerned. The measure provided for the capital of the purchase sum to be paid to the Treasury. The company was also to pay annuities in repayment of the Pacific Cable loan. When the undertakings had been taken over the Pacific Cable Board was to dissolve on a day fixed by Order-in-Council. An announcement was made on October 29 to the effect that the Marconi Company was ready to open a wireless service to Australia. This elicited the disclosure that the matter did not rest in the hands of the company. The Post Office Department had authorised it to be stated that inter-Imperial telephony remained its exclusive prerogative, in co-operation with the Dominions.