RADIO-TELEPHONING

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 296, 10 September 1938, Page 16

RADIO-TELEPHONING

Growth Of Overseas Traffic New Zealand's telephone system, although extensive, is not limited to the Dominion, the radio-telephone enabling subscribers to communicate promptly with telephone users in the United Kingdom, Australia, and on the Continent of Europe. This overseas telephone business of the New Zealand Post Office continues to grow in importance, and there was one busy day recently when 19 calls were bandied, 12 originating in New Zealand. These came from widely-distributed points, Including Wellington-Melbourne, Dun-edin-Sydney, Wellington-Sydney, Roto-rua-Melbourne, Auckland-London, Wel-lington-Newcastle (New South Wales), Auckland - Bournemouth, AucklandLondon, Balchitlia-Alexandra (Scotland), and New Plymouth-Glasgow. In every, case the conversations were carried out at the time nominated by the New’ Zealand subscriber and the conditions were uniformly good, this being due not only to the satisfactory state of the “radio atmosphere,” but to the efficiency of the land-lines in each country. The direct touch possible through the radio-telephone presents an advantage which the recently-cheapened cable rates and the attractive Empire airmail scheme has not diminished. There were 1725 of these overseas conversations in 1937, and this year the business is above the average of that period. Radio-telephoning across the Tasman received a stimulus toward the end of July, when the rate was reduced to 30/- for a three-minute conversation. The result was quickly apparent, 210 calls being handled last month, compared with 101 in August. 1937. All overseas radio conversations are secret, devices known as the “scrambler” and the “wobbler” being used for this purpose.