TELEPHONE DEMAND

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31277, 25 January 1967, Page 12

TELEPHONE DEMAND

“No Sign Of Let-lip”

There was no sign of a letup in the demand for telephones even though a record number of new connexions had been made last year, the Post Office Regional Engineer (Mr H. W. Wilkinson) said yesterday. “As long as the absolute demand continues we have to go on installing telephones,” he said.

To keep abreast of the demand a new exchange had to be built somewhere in Christchurch every two years. Each exchange had a capacity for many more lines than the number first installed. “With a growth rate of 5000 new telephones a year we must have accommodation for new lines,” he said. Since 1964 new exchanges with a capacity of 10,000 lines had been opened at Linwood and Hilmorton. The Islington and Shirley exchanges had been extended and those at Halswell and New Brighton replaced. Extensions were planned for the Beckenham, Mount Pleasant and Papanui exchanges. The Harewood exchange was opened last year, the Memorial avenue exchange is under construction and the new Rangiora exchange will be in use this year. Other exchanges now being planned will be built when the demand is there. With each extension of the telephone service went a mhjor extension of the entire city system and a rearrangement of the cable network.

Mr Wilkinson said as long as new houses were built and businesses expanded there would be a stage one demand for telephones. Stage two would be the demand for two telephones in private homes—one for the parents and one for the children.