§ 49. Mr. DAYasked the Postmaster-General whether his attention has been drawn to the difficulty of telephoning subscribers in country and rural districts and in obtaining a reply from the telephone exchange during the night; what steps are being taken by his Department to improve the night telephone service; and what testing system is at present in operation?
§ Major TRYONI am not aware of any serious difficulty of the kind suggested by the hon. Member. If he will furnish particulars of any instances of such difficulty, I will make inquiry and take what steps are possible to rectify matters.
§ Major TRYONYes, there is a system whereby a travelling staff makes tests.
§ 51. Sir F. SANDERSONasked the Postmaster-General whether he will consider making a special provision on the dials of automatic telephones for emergency calls, instead of the dialling 0 at present in practice, in view of the fact that there is frequently a delay of from 30 seconds to two minutes before an answer is received when 0 is dialled; and that in the case of fire and police services being required such delay might involve dangerous consequences?
§ Major TRYONIn order to secure the rapid setting up of emergency telephone calls special apparatus is being manufactured for use at automatic exchanges in London and other towns; with this apparatus the dialling of a special num- 503 ber will indicate to the operator the urgency of the call by means of a special signal.
§ 52 and 53. Sir R. ROSSasked the Postmaster-General (1) whether any progress has been made in providing additional telephone cables from Great Britain to Northern Ireland;
(2) whether he is now in a position-To impose uniform telephone rates throughout the United Kingdom?
§ Major TRYONWith my hon. Friend's permission I will answer these questions together, as I understand the second question to refer in particular to the special cable charges at present applied to telephone calls between the mainland of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Five additional telephone circuits from Great Britain to Northern Ireland have been provided this year by means of radio channels, and four more are expected to be available shortly. There will then be 28 channels in use as compared with 13 in 1934. The traffic is, however, increasing with unexpected rapidity and it is clearly necessary to provide further circuits. Urgent consideration is being given to the question whether these can best be provided by means of radio channels or of a submarine cable. The abolition of the special cable charges on calls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland would inevitably result in a further increase in the traffic and consequent serious deterioration of the service, and to my regret I cannot at present contemplate it.
§ Sir R. ROSSCan my right hon. and gallant Friend give me any idea when he will be able to contemplate it, and is he aware of the particular importance of telephone communications owing to the slowness of the posts to Northern Ireland?
§ Major TRYONI appreciate the importance of the position in connection with Northern Ireland, but we are considering the question of a radio service as a possible alternative or reinforcement of the present channels.