Soviet phone 'blinks’ way of life

Press, 20 September 1982, Page 8

Soviet phone 'blinks’ way of life

By

JOHN MORRISON

NZPA-Reuter

of

Moscow When part of the Soviet Union’s overseas telephone links collapsed on Friday, September 10, silver prices jumped in New York and worried American senators asked if a change of Government was under way in the Kremlin. By contrast in Moscow, where communications problems are a way of life, the breakdown passed unannouned and almost unnoticed. Russia installed its first telephones 100 years ago in 1882, but in many, ways the Soviet Union has stilf not quite come to terms with the invention. In 1980 the Soviet Union had 89 telephones per 1000 inhabitants, about onetenth of the density in the United States. In rural areas there were only 38 phones per 1000 people, a third of the figure for' towns. Although the Kremlin has promised to increase phone installations 40 per cent by 1985, millions of people have been waiting for years to be connected. Those without their own phones spend hours or days waiting in public telephone offices for their turn to make a call.

Automatic dialling has been introduced between main cities and towns but

works only intermittently because the lines are overloaded. On a recent afternoon at Moscow’s Central Telegraph Office a man who wanted to call Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan and a city of more than a million people, was told he would have to wait more than 24 hours. No calls at all were available through the operator to Soviet Central Asia, an area of several million people. Against this background, nobody seemed surprised to learn that overseas calls were subject to a delay of two days. Despite Lenin’s dictum that socialism without posts and telegraph is “just an empty word,” the Soviet Union wastes vast amounts of time and money through ' communications hold-ups. Communist Party and Government leaders have their own communications systems, but most farms, factories and offices depend on the creaking public network. Even in Moscow letters can take days to arrive, so foreign embassies and firms deliver their own mail by hand. Because postal and telephone links are uncertain and telex is scarce, the most common means of communication between Soviet factories is the old-fashioned telegram.

Technical problems are worsened by a series of factors peculiar to the Soviet Union which hamper •, communication.

Chief among these is the absence of any directory of private telephone subscribers. The last time a four-volume directory was printed in Moscow was in 1971 and there were ‘ only 50,000 copies for 840,000 subscribers. All that is available is a one-volume list of Government and city official numbers, which carefully omits the . embassies and other foreign organisations in the Soviet capital. Another, thing missing in the Soviet Union is the telephone switchboard and its operator to route incoming calls to the right extension in. hotels, Ministries, and other offices. Each official has his own outside line, so if he is away there is no switchboard to reroute his incoming calls and his telephone rings unanswered. Even when the call is answered, Soviet officials are reluctant to do business on the phone and ask for a letter instead.

Domestic phone traffic may give the Kremlin headaches, but the real problems start with international links, where the need for tight control conflicts with the demand for efficiency.

That Friday's telephone breakdown, which halted incoming and outgoing international calls through the operator to Moscow and most other main cities, appeared to be accidental rather than deliberate.

But it was preceded by a series of restrictions on telephone links to the West which Western governments saw as a gloomy political omen and a breach of Moscow’s commitments under the Helsinki European security accords. Direct dialling of calls to the West, first introduced in Moscow for the 1980 Olympics, was suddenly withdrawn in July amid protests of foreign embassies. This month it was followed by the withdrawal of incoming direct-dial calls from abroad. According to Western telephone authorities Moscow has cut back the number of lines used for traffic with most foreign countries. Western embassies in Moscow say Soviet officials, questioned about the cuts, have yet to provide a convincing technical explanation.

The reason seems to be that . security authorities were increasingly alarmed by the freedom given to ordinary Soviet telephone subscribers to call friends and relatives in the West. Direct dialling to foreign countries was never offi-

cially announced in Moscow when it was introduced, and information on codes for Western cities was spread among Muscovites by word of mouth. With all calls to the West now routed once again through the operator, the authorities will be able to decide who will be allowed to talk to whom. Government offices, foreign embassies, news organisations, and foreign businessmen find that they are given priority and their calls come through within an hour or two. Ordinary telephone subscribers tell a different story. They are regularly told by the operator that all lines are busy and find it almost impossible to make a call to a Western country. Now some Western embassies have been promised that they will be given back one or two lines with individual access to direct dialling, though none have been reconnected so far. The authorities seem to be looking for a technical solution which will allow embassies and other accredited foreign organisations to dial directly as before, diplomats say. Meanwhile the ordinary Soviet subscriber in the house next door who wants to call a cousin in New York or a friend in Paris will be kept at the back of the queue.