COUNTRIES LINKED BY TELEPHONE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 419, 10 November 1930, Page 11

COUNTRIES LINKED BY TELEPHONE

SERVICE AVAILABLE SOON In the near future New Zealand will be connected with approximately 90 per cent, of the world’s telephones. It is estimated that there are. 15,000,000 telephones in the world to-day, and so, by means of the radio telephone, a subscriber in the Dominion will be able to get connected with any one of 13,500,000. This service will be possible by the use of the radio telephone service, which is soon to be put into operation between Wellington and Sydney. Atter that has been made to work satisfactorily, the New Zealand service will be connected, through Sydney, with London, which is the world’s switching centre for telephones. Full details of the service between the Dominion and Commonwealth will be announced shortly by the PostmasterGeneral, the Hon. J. B. Donald, but a number of interesting facts connect-] ed with the new service were given i last week by Mr A. Gibbs, Chief Engineer of the Post and Telegraph De partmen t. One important point is that a person in Christchurch, for example, desiring to speak to another person in Sydney, will not be connected up until the person wanted in Sydney has answered. That will prevent money being wasted on putting through calls only to find that the wanted person is out. The method of calling up a person in Australia will be as simple as putting through an ordinary toll call, said Mr Gibbs. Toll No. 390 would be dialled and the name and address of the wanted person given- The ring would be put through to the Wellington radio station and communication established with Australia. The Australian exchange would make sure that the wanted person was in and would then give the connection with the person who had put in the call. Land Line Charges Paid “Wo are going out of our way to make sure that a caller gets the person ho wants,” said Mr Gibbs. “Until the person who is wanted is available the caller has no need to worry.” In obtaining connections with Australia, callers in New Zealand will be put through in the order in which the calls are lodged in the local offices ana not in the order in which the calls arc received in Wellington, he added. The Post Office, for the fee of £3 for three minutes, paid all land line charges, both hero and in Australia. Mr Gibbs pointed out that when the charges from, say /Dunedin to Wellington, and from Sydney to Adelaide, were paid out of the £1 a minute charge, the Post Office would not bo getting very much.