§ Mr. N. Pannellasked the Postmaster-General what progress he has made with the introduction of a national dialling system in the Telex Service.
§ Mr. MarplesI am pleased to announce that plans are well advanced and the first two automatic telex exchanges will be opened in the autumn of this year. One will be in Shoreditch, serving about one-third of the telex subscribers in London, and the other in Leeds serving telex subscribers there and in Bradford, Lincoln, Middlesbrough and York. The Telex Service will be completely automatic in three years. Operating economies so achieved will enable us to introduce a new tariff, based on the same principles as the new telephone tariff recently announced. There will be a 2d. unit charge for telex calls, the amount of time bought for 2d. depending on the distance of the call. Details of the new tariff follow.
average period of delay between application and service.
§ Mr. MarplesAt the beginning of this month, there were 105 outstanding applications. Of these, 79 are in the course 33W of being met and 26 are awaiting new line plant. Save in the few cases where applications have to be held up because of shortage of plant, service is provided within two to three months from the date of application.