POPULARITY OF TELEPHONE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22337, 26 February 1938, Page 11

POPULARITY OF TELEPHONE

INCREASE IN NEW ZEALAND

FIGURES

To handle well over 1,000,000 toll calls every month is now a commonplace for New Zealand's telephone system. This means of quick communication is becoming more and more popular, judging by the regularity with which the million mark has been passed each month since November, 1935, when a total of 967,365 calls grew to 1 099.902 in the next month. As the use of the toll lines gives a fair index *n activity in the commercial world, a comparison of the last six months' figures with the corresponding months of the previous year gives evidence of increasingly prosperous conditions. The details of monthly toll calls are: 1937. ' 193 i. July .. 1,143,548 1,012,994 August .. 1,148,422 1,035,022 September .. 1,111,460 1,012,163 October .. 1,180.638 1,096,838 November .. 1.209,546 1,079,157 December 1,341.514 1,245,030 The average expenditure for each toll conversation works out at 10.3 d, a figure which has been steadily rising from year to year as the Department's improved facilities have enabled the range of long.distance communication to be extended, until the whole of New Zealand is included within the scope of the telephone toll network, while the overseas radio telephone service makes its scope international.