LIMIT UPON CALLS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 June 1935, Page 5

LIMIT UPON CALLS

PUBLIC SLOT TELEPHONES. NEW APPARATUS INVENTED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. One of the problems of the post office in connection with slot, telephones has been the abuse of its liberal provision of an unlimited period for conversation for the penny fee. In automatic exchanges areas hundreds of annoyed people have written to the newspapers and to the department complaining of wait'ng outside slot telephone boxes for periods up to an hour while the telephone has been used for long - conversations. The engineering staff of the department has perfected an ingenious automatic device which will in future put the three minute limit to a call unless a further fee is paid for its continuation. The timing attachment, which is simple and strongly constructed, has been experimentally tried in a public slot telephone box with great success and is now being fitted as fast as the apparatus can be turned out by the department’s experts. A start has already been made to fit time controls at Wellington, and they will soon be in use at Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, after which the smaller automatic exchange areas will receive attention.