IMPROVED FACILITIES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4191, 31 May 1939, Page 12

IMPROVED FACILITIES

TELEPHONE EXCHANGE BROUGHT UP-TO-DATE. OTOROHANGA POST OFFICE Telephone development in the Otovohanga district in recent years has co- lather remarkable. Three years o tn.e number of subscribers to the Otorohanga telephone exchange was out n the short period referred co there has been an increase of 200 subscribers, or 52 per cent. During the same period, the number of toll calls originating at Otorohanga has ncreased from 32,700 to 5-8,500 per in num, an increase of 78 per cent. To provide a better service to the subscribers to this large 'country telephone exchange and to facilitate the handling of the increasing volume of toll traffic, new telephone exchange quipment, which has been installed n the Otorohanga new post-office building, is expected to be brought into operation on the 7th, June. The ew “Branching multiple switchard,” as it is known, is of the most modern type available for manual operation. It was assembled in the Post and Telegraph Department’s workshops in Wellington and consists of ordinary local calls between suscribers, and two positions for the handing of toll calls. By the “multipling” of subscribers’ lines to each “local” position, each operator will be able to join any subscriber to any other subscriber connected to the exchange. A better and‘more efficient service will thus result. Each, of the . “local” positions, rf which only three will be used in the meantime, has a capacity of 150 numbers, so that the total capacity of the exchange is 600 lines or double the capacity of the old exchange. As in the case of the majority of the country telephone exchanges in New Zealand. a large proportion of the subscribers at Otorohanga are served by party-lines, with the result that although the number of subscribers at present is nearly 600, only 250 lines are actually in use. The new switchboard with its capacity for 600 local lines, thus provides adequate switching facilities for future telephone development in the Otorohanga telephone area. In addition to improving local service, the toll service from the new exchange will be improved by the inclusion in the equipment of facilities enabling the toll operators to dial direct subscribers to the Hamilton lelephone exchange. This will not only enable a faster service to Hamilton to be provided, but will relieve the toll operators at the latter exchange of the necessity of handling calls inward from Otorohanga. Experience of branching multiple switchboards in other large towns has shown that this type of equipment renders efficient service, and as soon as the Otorohanga equipment has settled down and the operators have become accustomed to the new switchboards, the Department confidently anticipates that subscribers will receive a very good telephone service.