The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-05-12
INDEPENDENT PHONE
GOES OUT TO-DAY
One Telephone Will Reach
All Subscribers in City
Hereafter.

The Independent telephone service
nassed out of existence shortly after
midnight. when former Independent
subscribers were connected with the
two exchanges of the Mountain States
Telephone & Telegraph company. rms
YVES the final step in the consolidation
OF the city IS telephone service ana
came ninetccu days ahead OF the date,
June /. announced by tho company
last year as the time when the CITY :
service would be consolidated:
The last ten months have been busy
ones for the telephone company and
have witnessed a great amount OF con-
struction work, including the erection
OF the Hyland exchange building, the
installation Of four new switchboards
and the placing of miles OF under
90 this, a heavy additional burden has
been placed on the operating depart
ment and many new problems have had
10 be met by oil the departments Of the
company. All the force available has
been employed, but as much Of the
work calls for a high degree of tech
nicsl skill and experience possessed by
comparatively few persons, the heads
of the various departments, as well as
their subordinates, have been working
at the limit OF their capacity for
months. The completion of the work,
therefore, will be welcomed by the tel
ephone people probably with more
beartiness than by the telephone users.
Attended by Difficulties.
The consolidation here has been at
tended by unusual difficulties. In fact,
the telephone people say it was one or
the most intricate undertakings of the
kind in the history of the business, as
IL involved the most radical changes |
IN apparatus and methods.
The company is making every effort
TO impress the new conditions on pa
irons, as the subscribers have SO much
We can handle only part of the proc.
css of connecting two subscribers,
SAWS one Of the company's representa-
tivcs, "and without the reasonable CO.
operation of telephone users we cannot
give satisfactory service
The company has given notice Of the
new conditions to be observed on slips
attached to the new directories, it has
placed advertisements in the newspa-
pers and the operators will begin this
morning to call up subscribers to e1
plain the situation.
Must Use New Directory.
The notices emphasize the import
ance Of destroying at once the old di-
rectories. both Bell and Independent,
and using only the new Mountain
States directory, which contains the
names of all telephone subscribers in
the Salt Lake district. Subscribers are
also urged not to depend on memory
IN calling numbers, as many numbers
have been changed, and to be careful
10 give the exchange prefxes, "Wa-
satch' and "Hyland,U as the calls
will be handled through different build
iDgs.
It Is expected that with the new
plant in service, telephone conditions
in the city will soon be normal again,
as the new plant will enable the com
pany to handle the situation much bet
ter than has been possible recently.
The Mountain States company ex-
meets to continue in its employ all the
members Of the Independent force who
desire to remain in the business. This
VII include practically all the mem
force.