§ 38. Mr. Pounderasked the Postmaster-General what is the number of persons waiting for domestic telephone lines in Northern Ireland; what is the approximate delay between application and installation; and how this delay compares with a year ago.
§ Mr. Mawby:There are 54 applications for residential telephones on the waiting list in Northern Ireland and a further 1,213 are under inquiry or being met.
Where plant and equipment are available, service is generally provided within 3 to 4 weeks. This is about a week better than it was a year ago and includes the time the Post Office has to wait before starting some jobs in order to meet the convenience of customers. Many orders are, however, completed within a week or two and, as stated in the White Paper "The Inland Telephone Service in an Expanding Economy" (Cmnd. 2211) it is our aim to see that the overwhelming majority of customers get this standard of service by March, 1966.