TASMAN RADIOPHONE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 51, 24 November 1930, Page 13

TASMAN RADIOPHONE

Calls to Australia SERVICE OPENS TUESDAY From to-morrow the radio-telephone service between New Zealand and Australia will be open for public use. -The service will be available between the hours of 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. daily except on Sundays. Persons in Wellington desiring to ring Australia should, itj- the first place, dial No. 390, the toll'branch of the telephone 'exchange, and ask for “Overseas service." The name and the address of the person required should then be supplied. As Western Australia. Tasmania and the Northern Territory are not yet linked up with the main Australian telephone system, there will be no service, for the present, to those parts of Australia. The matter of the later extension of the service to the United Kingdom and certain other countries is receiving close attention, and it Is expected that service to those countries will be available within a few weeks. DI a Minute. The charge for a call to Australia has been fixed'at the rate of £1 per minute, with a minimum charge of £3 to cover a three-minute calk ■ The department states that it wiU make every effort to afford a completely satisfactory service; but, owing to variable conditions on radio-telephone channels, which are in most instances beyond human control, the continuity of conversation will be liable to momentary interruptions. Only effective conversation will, however, be charged for, ana, tor that reason, specially trained observers will listen across the radio channel, and, by means of cumulative stop-watches, any interference to the radio channel or associated land-line will be allowed for. At the end of three minutes, six minutes, etc., the control telephonist will announce the duration of the call; and, it will be incumbent on the caller to decide just how long he will carry on his conversation. The charge is based on the effective period during which he speaks over the radio channel. The calling person should avoid allowing an extension telephone to be connected at his end during the course of the conversation, as the switching together of two telephones during the call will considerably impair the quality of the conversation. Person to Person Calls. The service will embody a system of “person-to-person” calls, i.e., calls to or from specific persons; and, in certain circumstances, arising from the inability, through no fault of the service, to arrange the conversation, a partial charge termed a “report charge” will be made. The circumstances in which this particular amount would be payable will be determined by the telephone exchange officers. , The department is anxious to afford subscribers the full benefit of the radiotelephone service, and will be glad _to furnish any detailed information which subscribers and others may require in reference to it.