The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-21
TELEPHONE TO THE COAST
SALT LAKE WILL BE CONNECTED
VERY SOON.
With the Cities From San Diego to
British Columbia and Points In
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming.

A few short months only intervene be-
/ fore Salt Lake City will be connected by
! long distance telephone with all points
on the Pacific coast.
| The Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone
company is one of the largest business
enterprises, and controls the patents
and licenses OF the American Bell Tel
/ ephone company for Utah, Idaho Mon
tana and Wyoming, and has gradually
/ built w its system in all four states,
/ first putting the city systems in and
then connecting the cities by toll lines.
/ Gradually this work has progressed I'M
! til all the principal towns OF the four
states now have a telephone exchange,
while the toll lines connect them onto
practically one system. 1t has been
the aim OF the company to make
through Connection to the coast for the
past two years, but not until the spring
of the present year were active opera
tons commenced TO complete the pro-
ject.
To make the system complete, it was
not only necessary to carry the toll
lines north and west to the boundary
lines of Idaho and Montana, but the
companies controlling the coast states
also had TO be influenced to extend their
lines through to their eastern !ioun-
daries in order to make the connection
complete
TWO COMPANIES WILL CONNECT.
The coast company and the local
company agreed to connect carry in
1898, and with this object in view,
started their lines toward the agreed
point of connection. 1t was necessary
for the Rocky Mountain company to
build from Logan, Utah, to Dillon,
icfo nf in nrl.
TO complete the system to Montana,
which connects with Spokane and
points in British Columbia. This work
is now complete, with the exception Of
142 miles, between Idaho Falls and Dill
Ion. which is rapidly being built.
The Montana system has already
been built west to Spokane, Wash,
where it connects with the coast sys-
TEN, so that at the present time all
that prevents a Salt Lake business
man from talking with the coast, from
British Columbia on the north TO san
Diego on the south. is the stretch of
line between Idaho Falls and Dillon Of
142 miles. When this toll line is com
plete all that remains to be done is to
stretch the long distance copper wire
into Montana, then the customer of the
telephone company can ring central for
all points west.
There VIII be two connections, by
either of which the coast can be reach
ed, the one by way of Montana, just
mentioned, and one by way of Hunt
ingtOn, through to Portland and all
coast points.
The coast company and the Rocky
Mountain company will make a joint
connection at Huntington within ten
days, so that Idaho common points
will be talking with the coast by
Nov l.
a break in this line still remains be-
tween Boise and Pocatello, a distance
of go miles, to be built before the
through service from this city to San
Diego, a distance of 1000 miles in round
figures, can be connected.
The completion, Nov. /, of the line
from Boise to Huntington. will make
one of the longest telephone connec-
tons in the world.
THE COST OF IT.
The copper wire used for long dis
lance service costs the company $3.50
a mile, and, as two wires are needed,
the cost of wire alone amounts to $500
a mile, or 100000. from San Diego to
Boise. This service is so perfect that
one can hear as well, if not better, the
full distance from Boise to San Diego
as on any local wire in this city. The
telephone is becoming more and more
a factor in the business world each
year, and is a necessity not only in the
business Office, store or counting ROOM
but in the home as well. The past year
has seen a steadily increasing demand |
for the service, and the local COM
pany's business increased 20 per cent in |
1898
The cost of talking over the long dis
lance phone runs down to very cheap |
figures for short periods of time, and |
when one realizes that he can in or !
binary conversation talk 200 words a |
it is easy to see that a charge, |
say of $40, for five minutes talk to San |
Diego or l 900 words, is not high.
1t is cheaper and more satisfactory |
than the telegraph.
The Rocky Mountain company has
700 towns connected by wire, exchanges
N 81 cities, and 4,261 miles of copper
toll wire, over which 210,772 messages
we're sent in 1897.