Better P.O. service the aim

Press, 21 February 1986, Page 1

Better P.O. service the aim

Higher Post Office charges will be reflected in big improvements in New Zealand's telecommunications, according to the Government

The Postmaster-Gen-eral,, Mr Hunt, said yesterday that estimated capital expenditure by the Post Office in 1986-87 of about $7OO million would go mostly into telecommunications where demand was expected to rise 8 per cent between now and 1990.

Use of communications and postal services had already grown much faster than the economy itself, Mr Hunt said. He pointed to delays on some toll routes and the unavailability of telephones in some parts of New Zealand.

Mr Hunt said his priorities were first to ensure that everybody who required a telephone could get one, and second, to change manual exchanges to automatic, which would mainly be achieved by the end of next year. A third priority was to provide the latest telecommunications systems for business, an area which had been “at stretch point over the last few years.”

The Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, said big economic gains could be made by New Zealand’s investing in telecommunications technology.