Govt pledges $220M for rural telephones
PA Dunedin The Government would spend about $220 million over the next 10 years improving telephone services to rural areas; said the Post-master-General (Mr Cooper) in Dunedin. Mr Cooper said that the Government acknowledged some aspects of rural telephone services were unsatisfactory, and although improving the system would be expensive, the Government was trying to do that. “Whereas urban services cost about ,$l2OO a sub; ' scriber, rural reticulation is twice that and can be as high as $lO,OOO for a family living 15 km from the exchange,” he said. ; “Inevitably a difference ■ has developed in the quality
of service available to rural people, compared with that available to city dwellers.” Mr Cooper said that in the 1979-80 year 10 per cent ~of telecommunications capital development was spent on rural work, while last year that rose to about 25 per cent. The present programme has budgeted for 33 per cent development to go to rural areas. “Over the whole country it is estimated that some $220 million would be needed to convert manual exchanges to automatic, to reduce partyline loadings, to replace fault-prone cables, and fb complete the coverage of free-calling areas,” Mr Cooper said.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810603.2.118.7
Bibliographic details
Press, 3 June 1981, Page 23
Word Count
200Govt pledges $220M for rural telephones Press, 3 June 1981, Page 23
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.