ON THE 'PHONE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 63, 15 March 1945, Page 6

ON THE 'PHONE

PRIORITY PROBLEMS

LONG WAITING LISTS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I would like to draw attention to the unfairness in allocating telephones. I have had an application lodged with the Post and Telegraph Department for two years, attached to which are two doctors' certificates; I have been advised by the Post and Telegraph Department that there are several hundreds of applications ahead of mine and it will be some considerable time before a telephone can be installed. It seems remarkable that some people are only three weeks in a flat and the telephone is installed. Another case I heard of was a tele- v phone- was installed for a lady temporarily for four months, but strangely enough the telephone has been forgotten by the Post and Telegraph Department. What is the PostmasterGeneral doing to allow this to go on and also what is he doing to help the people out in urgent cases of sickness? Surely this is good revenue for the Government, and something could be done to clear things up a little.—l am, etc., PUZZLED. The Post and Telegraph Department (to which the complaint was referred) advises that the whole of the equipment in a number of the automatic exchanges serving the Wellington metropolitan area is in use, and that for this reason new connections in certain areas can be arranged only as existing subscribers relinquish their service. As this position has obtained for some considerable time and as applications for new connections far exceed relinquishments, very large waiting lists have been built up in respect lof the more congested areas. The position is such that many applications deserving of a high degree of priority cannot be satisfied.

It should be pointed out tKat not every application that is supported by a medical certificate is accorded priority. In fairness to other applicants for telephone service, the Post Office must be satisfied that the provision of a telephone is absolutely imperative before an application can be given priority over other waiting applicants. It is a fact that there are on hand many applications supported by medical certificates which cannot be accorded precedence over other equally deserving and prior-dated applications. In the absence of any specific details it is not possible to comment on the statement that a person received

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telephone service after occupying premises for only three weeks. , It is possible that the person concerned leased a telephone at his previous residence and the transaction merely represented the removal of the connection to the new residence. Generally it can be stated quite definitely that no new connection is authorised unless the application is either No. 1 on'the waiting list, or the circumstances are very exceptional and such as to justify the application being given precedence over all other applications recorded.

No one regrets more than the Post Office the present inability to give telephone service to all desiring it. This difficulty is wholly due to the Department's inability under war conditions to obtain the necessary extension equipment, etc., the first priority of the overseas factories concerned being the production of equipment for war purposes.