THE CUT-OVER.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19726, 17 September 1929, Page 13

THE CUT-OVER.

A VERY SUCCESSFUL OPERATION. MISTAKES OF SUBSCRIBERS. "Cliristcimrch has had the. best cutover so far made in New Zealand," said Mr A. Gibbs, Chief Telegraph Engineer for the Dominion, in referring yesterday to the change to the automatic telephones. "It has worked more smoothly in every way than any previous cut-over, partly by reason of the fact that we had the benefit of the experience of other places, and partly because Mr R. T. C. Roberts, the officer supervising the installation,, has worked up a special organisation to deal with the inexperience and faulty manipulation of the dials by the public."

Mr Gibbs remarked that 2300 of the Christchurch subscribers had had automatic telephones for some time, and thus had been trained in dealing with the dials, but they had acquired the bad habit .of dialling before they heard the dialling tone, which was not in use before the automatic exchange was in operation.. Now it was an essential part of the system—the sound of the dialling tone in the receiver was equivalent to the "Number, please" of the operators in . the old . manual exchange. A few other subscribers had caused difficulties through leaving their recdver off the hook.

Mr Gibbs paid a tribute to the as- ' sistance the newspapers had given the Department in instructing subscribers in the use of the telephones. People who are obviously making little attempt to follow the instructions in the directory, and have left their receivers off the hook, number for the whole of Christchurch, only a few hundred, and the' Department was prepared for them. Their lines have been insulated from the automatics alto-" gether, and connected to the boards of the old manual exchange, where .a staff of a dozen or so men, forming a hospital serv'ce are attending to their wants by actually dialling for them the numbers thev require, . and instructing them verbally, in the use, of their telephones. Probablv with this assista.nce they will soon pick up the art of manipulation. Meanwhile, they would be holding up the eouipment which other people are able and anxious to use properly if left on the automatics..

Mr Roberts said yesterday that everything . was going satisfactorilv, and there were absolutelv no breakdowns'. The apparatus had come factorily through a test which had been conducted overnight. Some people were lifting their receivers off thehook merely to listen to the humming sound of the dialling tone. This practice was not conducing to thy smooth working j of the exchange. Others who looked up their numbers after taking up their receivers were holding the register, which was equivalent to . monopolising the time of one attendant until they were connected The release of the dial with the last numeral registered the full number in less than a second, and on no account must this final movement of the dial be retarded. In addition to the dozen jor so men working on the hospital service, other employees are making short - work of • the old equipment, some of which is over 40 years old and practically falling to pieces. The insulating of the wires has disintegrated, and one can imagine the trouble the exchange staff had with contacts alone, although, of course, they had other worries! There was a reluctance to move the wires at all, because of the likelihood' of fresh trouble being caused thereby. The old equipment is now being taken to pieces, and rapidly removed. Even the girls' headsets are being taken apart, and baskets full of mouthpieces and ->tles of old telephones furnish proof that the Department is . wasting no time in preparing the exchange for the' use of a section of the clerical staff. Traffic on rural lines was very heavy yesterday, and, of course, automatic exchange was busy, with a fair number of calls being made obviously foi the sole purpose of giving subscribers an opportunity of testing the new service for themselves.

A line fault at Lvttelton yesterday caused a report in the City that a breakdown had occurred ;n the equipment there. This was not so, however, and the line was speedily repaired. Many people are still using the old directories, so when the out-of-date telephones are being collected subscribers are asked to destroy • them.

The new equipment which will be used in the extensions to. the service is coming to hand, and work will be commenced on its installation immodiatelv the antomatieexchange is operating to the satisfaction of •verybody.