The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-28
TELEPHONE COMPETITION.
STATISTICS SHOWN BY PHILA-
 DELPHIA COMPANIES

How the Bell Company Outranks the
 KeystOne-FOrmer Has About 100000
 to 25,OOO Phones for Latter Company Other Phases of the Subject.
 Hartford, Oct. 20.-The story of tele-
 phone competition was told time and , again at the hearings in the general
 assembly last spring in regard to leg
 slation affecting the interests of the Southern New England company in | this state. Every few days new illus tratious are met with, showing the sound judgment of the Connecticut | legislators in dealing with the pro-
 blems that came before it. One of these illustrations is from the city of Philadelphia, where the Keystone Tel ephone company has been the compe- titor of the Bell company for three years. Philadelphia is the largest city in the United States that has compe- tition in the telephone service. On the first of August this year. the Bell
 company had in the city itself 62,056 stations and the Keystone company 17,000. The exclusive stations of the
 two companies last May, an interesting fact by the way, gave the Bell conn pany 21,509 business places, 17,003 res l idences and 1,74O physicians, making
 total of 4O,252. The Keystone compa-
 ny had 2,692 places of business in the
 exclusive list, 997 residences and 35
 physicians, the total being S,724, The 1O,252 exclusive stations the Bell | company could not be reached by the
 lines of the Keystone, while the latter
 had only SPA stations that could not
 be reached by the Bell lines. h wha.
 is known as the Philadelphia district, including Camden, Atlantic City and Trenton, N. J., and Wilmington, Del, the Bell company, with it's connections with the Delaware and Atlantic com
 pany, has 100000 stations, while the Keystone with it's Independent connec- tions controls only about 25,000. This superiority in the number of stations, both in Philadelphia and it's surround 1 ing territory, makes the Bell service far more available and valuable to tyi- ephone uses than that furnished by the Keystone or independent service. During the three years that the Key stone has been a competitor of the I Bell company the competitor has not
 caused a reduction in telephone rates for the users, except in a minimum of 1 cases. It has also come to light that the low rates of the independent com pany have been fund insufficient to produce a revenue to cover the proper charges against the business. The competition has not forced any fedlc- tion in the rates of the old company, | nor has it prevented d large and con- stand growth in the business of the company, which now has nearly four times as many subscribers as the new company. The increase in the number of stations by the Bell compaay m the l city of Philadelphia during the thir- teen months ending August i, 1905, was 14,066, being within 5000 of the Key stone total number of stations in the city. The independent company start ed out with the announcement that all
 o its services, would be unlimited and at flat rates. It has found it expedi. ent to introduce limited services, The comparatively small number O. exclu- sive stations controlled by the Key stone is in the eyes of a telepaone user
 a great deficiency mark against the company's service. The service of the Bell company in the City ot Brotharly Love is so much more extanSive and available that the difference in fhe | charges of the two companies is more than justified. An analysis of finan- cial statements issued by the Keystone Telephone company will snow that the company's earnings under existing
 rates are insufficient to cover it's cpe, rating and general expenses, interest
 charges and depreciation. The annual depreciation of the compauy's plant
 for instance, is put in at 1.3 per cent.
 Telephone engineers the world over
 agree that 5 per cent is minimum
 charge for the depreciation of the best constructed plants. The Bell compa-
 ny in Philadelphia requires more than ' per cent. of the cost of it's planS to cover its depreciation expense annual
 ly. The public is anxious for law tel ephone rates. In Connecticut the
 Southern New England is meeting the public demands It gives Q service equal in value to that of the Bell com pany of Philadelphia and it's rates are at rock bed figures. Any point in Connecticut can be reached for twen-
 ty-five cents by subscriber. That is
 not possible in the telephone service of
 any other state, the mileage idea in rates prevailing everywhere outside Of
 the Nutmeg commonwealth. The in- dependent telephone companies that
 have sprung up like mushrooms in many states have not given the public i the service that has been promised at
 the outset. The Philadelphia illustra- tion, which is one of the most favora-
 bls ones in the country Cor the inde- pendents, is far from being satiseacto- ry. It is a good one, however, to re | studied by the people of Connecticut.