NEW EQUIPMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 140, 16 June 1941, Page 3

NEW EQUIPMENT

TELEPHONES IN AUCKLAND

EFFICIENT CHANGE-OVER

* I Working with speed and precision i early yesterday morning, experts of I the Post and Telegraph Department in Auckland accomplished without a 1 hitch one of the most complex telephone cut-overs from old to new equipI ment attempted in this counti\v. The work involved simultaneous operations at seven exchanges and the alteration of 10,000 numbers, about one in every three in the area. All was in readiness for the change . | before midnight on Saturday and staffs j ■ j were waiting. The exchanges were : "I linked with Devouport whence the -j operation was directed, and on the ;~i words "Stand by—cut" promptly at j ',! midnight, each man moved swiftly j . I about ;* delinite task in the throwing j r,:of old equipmeni out of use and bring-; - j ing the new equipment into operation, j pj Within 3o seconds the first exchange i -Iliad reported back" that Hie cut-over! had been carried out and in .just over1 . i five minutes it was completed at all i ■'exchanges. '■■ Dcvutiporl was chosen for the ufiicial; 'ceremony because there, as also at; .Onchunga. a complete new exchange j ! was brought into use and an old one! ' went out of operation. Addressing thei oflicial party, Mr. G. R. Milne, aulo-i ■ matic engineer, General Post Office, ; Wellington, said the rapid, expansion; ' of The suburbs in the last few years j ; ■ had made it increasingly difficult to i ' \ provide telephone service, especially j ' | following the mushroom growth of dis- j ', i tricts opened up by the waterfront! ; I road, ll became evident that service: M could not continue to be given with, ' jthe existing network, but to establish J j I new exchanges reorganisation and ex-, pansion of the entire system were \ necessary. This first stage in the ex- : pansion programme was now being I i completed. : SAVED 111OM THE ENEMY. ' \ At. one stage there was considerable ' i doubt whether New Zealand would ' ! ever see the new equipment. While it ' j was being manufactured by the sup--1 I pliers, Standard Telephones and Cables ' | Proprietary, in Belgium, the war 'started, and ii, was only through a: effort by the company that the! , j equipment was.shipped just before Bel-j ' ; gium was invaded. Auckland had been more fortunate than in the last war, when some of the equipment tor ex-' changes was lost at sea, and prac- j ticaily all. the gear for the expansion | programme was now in hand. j : Stalling difficulties through calls on | the Department's skilled men by the forces had slowed up the work. Mr i j Milne continued, but with the coinijpletion of the first stage they were already to go ahead with the new ex-i - i changes, provided sufficient staff could ''.'be made available. I i '< "