AUSTRALIAN WIRELESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19798, 19 November 1927, Page 12

AUSTRALIAN WIRELESS.

AGREEMENT WITH COMPANY PLANT TO BE MODERNISED. •f/CONDITIONS FOR LICENCES. OPERATION FOR FIVE YEARS. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. A. and N.Z. CANBERRA, Nov. 19. In tho House of Representatives the Prime Minister, Mr. S. M. Bruce, introduced a bill to amend tho agreement between the Commonwealth Government and the Amalgamated Wireless Company cf Australia, Limited. The bill provides for the free use of patent rights to licensed broadcasting (stations, radio dealers and listeners-in from the Amalgamated Wireless Company, with. the payment to the company by the Commonwealth Government of 3d a taonth on behalf of each licensed listener, and also for tho revision by the company of the stations which it at present owns. Tho new agreement is to remain operative for five years, and the Commonwealth and the company must agree on the form of licence which is to be signed by users of the patents. Th© company agrees to grant a licence free of royalty to every newspaper and every broadcasting station in the Commonwealth, for tho purpose of receiving official news bulletins from Britain. The company also agrees to prosecute as expeditiously as possible the actions which have already been instituted for the infringement of its patent rights. It is agreed that tho actions aro for rights that are important to broadcasting, and that unless these actions aro finished within 12 months in favour of the company the agreement provides that the company will commence corresponding actions in New Zealand. The provision dealing with the retention of its stations by the company includes a clauso that all its equipment shall bo modernised and the stations reorganised. Payments to tho PostmasterGeneral's Department in respect of messages handled by the Post Office aro eliminated, while tho Commonwealth promises to provide the company with the necessary land for line connections and internal communications at the usual rates. The company will not bo allowed to transmit or to receive inland messages, unless icquired to do so by the Commonwealth in cases of interruption to the line circuits. The company will be entitled to establish and operate commercial wireless services between Australia and ships at sea, and with aircraft, and between the territories and other countries.