Britain: An official handbook > 1959

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BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
Telegraphs. Most of the telegraph services to European countries are worked from
the Central Telegraph Office in St. Martin’s-le-Grand, London, from which
there are direct circuits to most countries on the Continent. The services to
countries outside Europe, some services to Europe, and the picture telegraph
service, are operated from Electra House, Victoria Embankment, London. In
the year ended 31st March, 1957, the Post Office transmitted 12 million tele¬
grams to countries abroad and received a similar number.
Telex. The International Telex Exchange, in the Central Telegraph Office,
provides a teleprinter service to 34 countries abroad. In 1956-57, 1 -4 million
outgoing international calls were made.
Telephones. Telephone service to European countries is through the Continental
Exchange in London, from which some 612 direct telephone circuits radiate
to 20 continental countries. These circuits, over which calls can be connected
to almost every country in Europe, are also used to send and receive pictures,
and special circuits are used for broadcast transmissions. In 1956-57, over
2 million outgoing calls were made. Automatic dialling by operators to sub¬
scribers in certain European countries has been introduced on a small scale,
and will be developed progressively. Radio circuits which provide service with
most countries outside Europe and with many of the larger liners at sea are
connected through the International Exchange (also in London).
On 25th September, 1956, the first transatlantic telephone cable—also the first
long-distance submarine telephone system in the world—was inaugurated. The
cable was designed to provide 29 telephone circuits with the United States of
America, and six to Canada, but subsequently it proved possible to accommodate
two additional telephone circuits, making 30 with the United States and seven with
Canada. Still further increase in capacity has since been obtained by splitting
certain of the channels into two. Eight circuits are used to provide direct telephone
communication between the United States and seven continental countries. In
addition to the telephone circuits, the cable carries 22 telegraph channels to
Canada, thereby supplementing the existing telegraph cables and improving
communications with Australia and New Zealand via Canada. The system
provides a secure service that is dependable day and night and quite free from
uncertainties, distortions and fadeouts that affect the transatlantic radiotelephone
circuits. The whole project was undertaken jointly by the United Kingdom
Post Office, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Cana¬
dian Overseas Telecommunication Corporation, which jointly maintain it.
Before the cable was used, the weekly averages of radio calls between London and
Canada and between London and the United States were 530 and 2,320, respec¬
tively. At the end of the first year of the new cable’s service, traffic had risen to
weekly averages of 1,600 and 4,300.
In April 1957, officials of the Governments of Canada and of the United King¬
dom, representatives of Cable and Wireless Ltd. and the Canadian Overseas
Telecommunication Corporation discussed plans for another transatlantic telephone
cable with 60 two-way circuits. This will be laid by the Post Office cable ship
H.M.T.S. Monarch, and should be completed by 1961. It will be owned by Cable
and Wireless Ltd. and the Canadian Overseas Telecommunication Corporation.
A new Anglo-Belgian telephone cable was laid in March 1958. The first telephone
cable between the United Kingdom and Sweden is to be laid in i960; the cost is
to be shared equally between the United Kingdom Post Office and the Swedish
Telecommunications Board. Further extensions of the Commonwealth and other
overseas telecommunication services are in progress.