§ Lady Gammansasked the Postmaster-General what plans he has for the application of electronic techniques to telephone switching.
§ Mr. MarplesElectronic directors for routing calls within the London telephone system have been working successfully at the Richmond exchange for five years, and improved electronic equipment of this kind will shortly be in use at Lee Green. When the Bristol subscribers have their own trunk dialling facilities in 1959, the equipment which controls the routing of the calls and the charges, will be electronic.
Like ourselves, other countries are working hard on the development of a 184W fully electronic public telephone exchange. I am happy to announce that, as the result of joint research and development by the Post Office and the telecommunications industry of this country, we shall have one here in the spring of 1960. Plans are made, and work will soon begin, to provide at Highgate Wood in London a prototype electronic exchange, giving service to over 1,000 subscribers.