§ Mr. R. Gibsonasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that Greenock telephone subscribers are being repeatedly rung up to answer calls intended for subscribers with the corresponding Gourock number and vice versa; what steps he proposes to take to eliminate this inconvenience; and when the new automatic exchange for the area will be put into operation?
§ Mr. W. S. MorrisonCalls for subscribers on the Greenock and Gourock exchanges are occasionally misrouted to the corresponding number on the other exchange. The trouble is largely due to the wrong exchange being asked for by the caller although there are, of course, cases of error due to phonetic similarity. The operators are well aware of the circumstances and when they find that any particular subscriber has been troubled by wrong numbers, they check every call to him before setting it up. The introduction of automatic working will remove the trouble, but I regret that in present circumstances I am unable to give even an approximate date for the change over.