§ Mr. Hollingworthasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that people wanting to make calls from kiosks are often kept waiting because the kiosk is occupied by other people making unnecessarily prolonged calls; and whether he will take steps to prevent the public being inconvenienced in this way.
§ Mr. BevinsI agree this causes annoyance. I have considered the possibility of cutting off calls after a limited time. But to do this for kiosks connected to automatic telephone exchanges would mean additional equipment at the exchange itself, and a complete re-design of the box, at a cost of about £3 million. To do it at kiosks connected to manual exchanges would also be expensive, and would involve changes in the equipment and more staff. I could not justify all this.
This difficulty however should wane with the introduction of the new design of public call offices, as the system of subscriber trunk dialling is extended. With the new box local calls are automatically disconnected after 3 minutes—6 minutes in the cheap rate period—unless another fee is paid. I hope to have 3,000 of these new boxes working within the next twelve months.