Advantage Taken of Lower Initial Charges The frst business day following the Iniroduetion of the telephone message rate" Into" Shanghai. showed {tieteased demand for telephones. 'The Increase was about. five" times the normal, and 65 per cent, of the number Wore for business telephones as com= pared wilh residents, This probably Was de, Mr, L.A, _Fritenman, 'Assistant' General" Manager of the Shanghai Telephone Company, told the "North-China Herald" on Monday, to the fact Uhat many people had delayed ordering new telephones so as to take advantage of the lower initia Yates for installation and connection, Which came into" force with the Message rate, 'Tt was too early yet to make any statement with regard to an increase of decrease in telephone trafic, Mr. Fritehmon said, adding' that_aeival gures would not be known until the end of the month, To illustrate the imeulty of obtaining such gures, Mr, Fritehman showed his Interviewer telephone metres in the main office of the company in Kiangse Mead, which
calls, only reser "portion of Shingha's Ina long room were thousands of indicators, the faces of which are about two Inches in" length and resemble a type of speedometer. cessant cheking continues, Mr. Fritchman explained that. this noise was made When call: was registered on fan idleator, As soon os the call was over, the machine attached to. the particular telephone caller ticked up one, Unlike many cities In the world, there is no time limit to a call in Shanghai, "A. long call costs Just the same as a short one, Mr, Fritchman himself indicated that he would be extremely interested {o learn ures for comparison be-{Wveen the message rate and the flat rate, As a start for the new system, ieltes all over. Shanghai were xead at midnight on Saturday.
Mr. C, W. Porter, Vice-President ud General Manager of the Shanghai Telephone Company, discussing the message rate, said" that what iumounted to as that only big users, sch as. the Jarger. business houses, Wwould be affected. He compared it to mon using -clectrielty. 'The man with weak eyesight, he said, probably had' to use electricity. whereas the man with normal sight did not. The exten electrlety the week-sighted man ised had to be pald for, and the same now applied to users of the telephone, "Asked about the new China to Eng: land radiotelephone service, Nr, Fritchman, who made an unoMciai test last. week, said the result was Hood, "Ffom his house he spoke to representative of the Post OMiee sri London for about fifteen minutes, He purposely made a subscriber test, he ald, It was one thing to alk: {rom radio station "to radio station, Dut quite another to talk from house over an intricate circuit of wites connecting up to the radio station. Between him andthe Chinese Radio station at Lutho were some 25 miles of wite, The Post OMee representative In London also made a subscriber test, though he did not know the distance of wire separating him from the radio station just outside London, They had to talk slowly, but. they could hear one another clearly. This service is entirely in the hands of the Chinese, the Shanghai "Telephone Company merely acting as a connects Ing Tink.
He expressed the opinion that probably it would be only 0 matter of a few months before China could tall with countries alt over the world,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.