COSTLY CONVERSATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16228, 30 December 1926, Page 7

COSTLY CONVERSATION

LONDON TO NEW YORK BY WIRELESS TELEPHONE |Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Frees Assn.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.! LONDON, Dec 28. The General l'ost Office announces that it is hoped to inaugurate a public wireless telephone service with the York exchange early in January. A caller will be able to use his private telephone in the ordinary way, giving the American exchange and the number, and also the name of the person to whom it is desired to speak. If connection is made with the desired person, the charge will be £ls for three minutes. If the desired person is not available, the caller can converse with an alternative person at the £ls rate. if lie declines to do this ho must pay £2 for the connection with the desired number, but if not connected therewith be pays nothing. If atmospherics interfere with the conversation, an allowance will be made.) The. Post Office says that the measure: taken to cope with fading and atmospherics represent the results of three years' research experiments, giving ,a clarity of reception which was not imagined possible even so late as 1923. The voices at each end automatically control the switches, enabling the conversation to be carried on as on ordinary land lines.' The caller in London gets the trunk exchange where he is connected with Rugby, and thence by wireless with Houlton, Maine, and thence over a 500mile land line to the jNew Y'ork longdistance exchange, where he is connected with the local exchange and the number! of the desired person, whose reply comes ; via Long Island to Wroughton, near) Swindon, thence to London and the! caller. The Post Office considers £ls I a reasonable charge, seeing that the Rugby wireless station cost £500,000. The charge for England toAmerica will be £ls for three minutes! and £5 for each extra minute.