WORLD’S TELEPHONES

Evening Star, Issue 19660, 13 September 1927, Page 8

WORLD’S TELEPHONES

FIGHT FOR CONTROL WIRE-PULLING .MAGNATES. The thought of telephone wires linking np the far corners of the live continents, girdling the whole earth, is romantic enough in an obvious way, but the wire-pulling of the telephone magnates that goes on quietly in the world’s big capitals is a romance ol commerce that deserves to ho bolter known. There is a war going on, m | a commercial sense, ior the _ world s I telephones (says a London writer). | It requires almost a mental eliort for an J'mglishman to conceive that, juiyonc .should fijdit to supply or uiond a telephone. Such a tiling is not done in this country. | We regard the telephone here as a drab convenience or nuisance,_ winch no cne ever wants to repair if ’t gets i out of order. No G.1’.0. oflieial ever | units upon the backstairs to jndmniee , the mniuss or bribe the .servants to ( gel Hie tcie.phone installed. _ j Jiiie in other ciimatos, otiier man- i mrs. Tin, big international udepnare ecuipanics are lighting each other for new business. The fact is there is a lot ut money I.> lie made out of telenbmie.;—-rmmn-factnring tins equipment, installing the inslnimcnl.s and lilies, and maintaining the servin'. Jhcro aic still oceans of space fur more telephone wires, whilst automatic telephone exchanges are still in their infancy. A servev of the distribution oi the world’s telephones last year found 01 l>or uojit. in iho l.miod Stuios, T\itli 100,000,000 inhabitants; 27 per cent, in Europe v ith a population of 175,000,00(1; and 12 per cent, in other countries. , IRor every hundred people in tlio United States there are about Fifteen telephones, in Europe about one am three-quarters, and in Central and South America about three-quarters. The average European town ol 30,000 population is at present served by NO i telephones, while a. town of the same size in the United States is served by 1,420. , , Hence the scope for lelepbnne development outside Hie U.S., and hence the fight for Hie business. The two chief international competitors are the International Tnlcnhone and Telegraph _ Corporation, with its offices in New lark, and tin; International Automatic Telephone Company with its offices in London. q’hc former is 300 per cent. American, and closely allied witli the great American Telephone and Telegraph Company, popularly known as the 801 l Company. “International,” in fact, was formed to get the world’s business in telephones outside America for Americans. Its president, Colonel Eosthcncs Helm, is determined to get IC- Sir Alexander Roger is chairman of International Automatic. Unfortunately, it is not possible to maintain that tho company is 100 per cent. British. . It was formed in 1020 to develop in particular the Strowger system of automatic telephones, invented and made by tho Automatic Electric Company of Chicago. The bulk of tho machines are made in Chicago. The fight between these two companies is” becoming tense,. “ International” is firmly established in Central and South America and in Spain, whoro it has the monopoly. . , Sis months ago its Spanish subsidiary, Compania Telefonica Nacional de lsspana, completed a long distance ’ telephone system connecting the four distant corners of Spam, and opened automatic telephone exchanges at Santander and Madrid. . . Thanks to “Internationa!,” Spain is ahead of England in telephone efficiency. The next ambition of Colonel Bohn it to operate a long distance telephone service between London and Madrid.