The Weekly Gazette

CONN. REMOVES THREE
PHONES FOR 5 PUT IN
S. N. E. T. Co. Must Install 100
to Gain 40.

Connecticut's telephone system expanded by seven per cent during the
year of 1925, yet in the course of this
expansion, which involved a gain of
16,380 new stations, it was necessary
for the Southern New England Telephone
Company to install over 42,000
telephones in the state, for during the
year this large number of installations
was greatly counteracted by the
discontinuance of over 26,000 stations.
In other words, for every 100 new telephones
it installed, the company had to remove
about 60. It must install five stations in
order to gain two. Since the very beginning of the
telephone business, it has been necessary
to remove a large number of stations
each year, although the number of new
telephones always outnumbers the removals
to such an extent that large gains are made
annually. The necessity for discontinuing
service on such a large number of
lines is obviously costly, for it involves
the expense of new equipment,
installation work, and other service.
Despite the fact that the company
left telephones in many vacant premises
pending reconnection orders by new occupants,
the station removal and change expense for the
year of 1925 in Connecticut amounted to over
$219,000. The ratio of removals to installations
is much larger in many other parts of the country.