§ 47. Mr. HANLEYasked the Postmaster-General when a teleprinter exchange service will be made available; the area to be covered by the service; the rental to be charged for the apparatus; and if the service will entail an increase of staff?
§ Sir K. WOODThe proposed telegraph exchange service will be provided by means of teleprinters working over the public telephone exchange system. I hope it will be possible to provide it as a local service in London within about three months' time, and to extend it to the provinces and to include trunk service by stages during the course of this summer. The rental to be charged will be £65 a year, made up of £50 for a teleprinter and £15 for the necessary associated apparatus. Teleprinter exchange messages will be charged for like telephone calls and handled by the telephone exchange operating staff in the ordinary 1274 course of their duty. No immediate increase of staff will be involved; but any large addition to the volume of calls handled would naturally require additional operating force.