A Maze of Telephones.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue XX, 16 May 1903, Page 1362

A Maze of Telephones.

STOC KHOL Al R ETICUL A T ED. Probably the first thing which a visitor to Stockholm remarks after his arrival is the appalling number of telephones scattered about the hole! in the corridors and rooms. In his bedroom he will perhaps find one, and just outside the door another, lie cannot move twenty steps without discovering a new one. While, when he goes out into the streets he will see little shelters, each of which holds an inst rument. If his washerwoman does not send the linen back punctually he rings her up to ask the reason. If he wants company at dinner or lunch he invites a friend through the telephone. It is here, there, and everywhere. In Stockholm there are more subscribers to the telephone than there are in New York and Chicago together. It is used very advantageously in the rapid discharge of work by the State authorities. There are arrangements made by which telegrams, instead of being sent to the house, are communicated per telephone to the receiver direct from the post office. Tn short, the telephonic system of

communication has l>een carried to the highest pitch of perfection in the Scan dinavian Peninsula. But even now it cannot be said that the system has attained its gretteit dimensions if one is to judge from last year’s figures, from which it appears that no fewer than 12.000 fresh installations were made in Sweden, the major ity in and around the capital. Almost every village is connected by telephone with its nearest neighbours even in such distant parts as uapland. At the present time there are only two really big telephone companies i»i Sweden, the General Telephone Com

pany and the National Telephone Com pany, a Government concern.

The former has about 33,000 subscribers, and its system is confined to a radius of seventy miles from Stockholm. Over the rest of the land the Government has a monopoly of the telephones. Within the seventy-mile radius of the capital there are only 12,000 subscribers to the Government company, but outside the radius 50,000 more have joined the system. A certain amount ot rivalry naturally exists between the two companies in Stockholm, with the result that the cost

of the telephone is cheaper there than in any other city in the world.

The General Telephone Company charges 11/ for the installation of the apparatus in a private dwelling, and thereafter an annual charge of £2. In business houses, where more than one instrument is required, the cost varies from £ 3 3/ to £5 10/. The Government, on the other hand, charges £2 15/ per annum, and no installation fee. without any distinction between private dwellings and business 'louses. In Stockholm itself the .eneral Telephone Company owns no fewer than 22,000 miles of double wires, and within the seventy-mile radius it possesses 7500 miles more, most of which are laid underground in cables, each cable containing two hundred and fifty double wires.

It is a fact worthy of remark that nearly all the cables are made in England or Germany, Sweden, in spite of her enormous telephone system, not having a single cable factory. But ill the instruments, exchanges, etc., are manufactured by the world famous firm of Ericcsson, so well known in connection with some of the largest systems in England and other places, including New Zealand.

In the exchange room a hundred girls are always at work. They are relieved four times a day. Everything is done by the company to make the life comfortable. Two large sitting-rooms, furnished with lounges, easy, chairs, pianos, etc., are provided for them when of! duty, and a large comfortable diningroom for their meals. Last year the Government tried to buy the General Telephone Company out. But Parliament refused to vote the necessary three-quarters of a million sterling—a course which it will yet regret. as in 11130, when the concession expires, and the Government has the next chance to buy, the price will be much higher, as the business increases tremendously every year.