TELEPHONE ENTERPRISE

Southland Times, Issue 19502, 17 March 1925, Page 5

TELEPHONE ENTERPRISE

INNOVATION IN ENGLAND. MESSAGES DURING ABSENCE. Another convenience is to be offered, very shortly, to telephone subscribers in most parts of England. Arrangements are being made for the inauguration of a system which will permit a subscriber to leave his instrument unattended for an hour, a day, a week, a month ,or even a longer period, and yet be assured of the ultimate reception of all messages telephoned to his number during his absence. The subscriber will merely have to advise the exchange that he is leaving the vicinity of his instrument and ask that all messages for him in the interim be written down for communication to him later. In his absence all callers asking for bis number will be transferred to a special reception bureau, where the message, if it is desired to leave one, will be received and forwarded to the called subscriber at the earliest opportunity. It is hoped to instal the new system in London almost immediately. It has already been tried in Paris and Copenhagen, and its success in those cities has inspired the post office to renew the experiment in England. The system was given a trial some time ago, but the immediate result was inconclusive, and its general use had to be deferred. This new service will be available only to those subscribers who require it, and at a normal extra charge.