TELEPHONE CHARGES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20484, 10 December 1934, Page 4

TELEPHONE CHARGES.

New Zealand and Great Britain Compared.

Tn a very interesting comparison of charges for telephones in Great Britain and in New Zealand, which has been furnished by the Post Office, it is shown that telephone rentals in the Dominion compare very favourably with those in Great Britain, notwithstanding that the British charges have only recently been reduced. In Great Britain, an annual rental is charged for the use of the telephone instrument itself, and every time even a local call is made the subscriber is charged Id or 2d, according to distance. In New Zealand, telephone rental charges are in four schedules, designed to suit towns of varying sire, and once a subscriber has paid his rental he is able to make as many local calls as he wishes without any extra payment. Based on a moderate estimate of the number of calls likely to be put through by the average business house and private residence, the New Zealand rates arc lower than those of Great Britain. In the case of a business house or residence that puts through a large number of calls, the New Zealand rates are very much lower than those in operation in Great Britain. For instance, while a telephone in the four principal centres of New Zealand costs a business man £ls per annum, for which payment he may make an unlimited number of calls, a telephone in London which makes an average of ten calls per day costs the business man over £2O per annum, while a telephone in Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool or Manchester making an average of ten calls a day costs the business man £l9 10s per annum. Similarly, in respect of telephones in residences, a telephone in a New Zealand home in one of the four principal centres costs £8 10s per annum for an unlimited number of calls. A telephone in a resiI der.ee in London making on an average fivi calls per day costs £ll 9s per annum, and a similar telephone in Birmingham. Glasgow, Liverpool or Manchester costs £lO 17s. The lowest charge in Great Britain for a telephone making as few as three calls per day is £7 15s. The lowest charge in New Zealand for an unlimited number of calls is £6 per annum.