The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1926-09-09
new LONG DISTANCE
SCHEDULE CHANGED
Important Changes Mean Better
Service and 100000 Annual
Saving to the Public

| Important changes involving il gen
eral REIMBURSEMENT in long distance
rates, and in the evening and night
period during which reduced rates
apply, are announced by The Noun
tain States Telephone and Telegraph
/, Company. The changes are effective
on all calls from points in the Noun
tain states territory to points in the
territory Of any other associated
company. They are made, the com
pany states, for the benefit of users
Of long distance service and to elm
mate service difficulties which the
present schedule has brought about.
The net result of the REIMBURSEMENT
in rates will be a saving to the tele-
phone users of the country of ap-
proXimately three million dollars a
year. To points outside the territory
of the Mountain States Company and
$50 miles or mo"c distant the rates are
substantially reduced The greater
the distance, the greater the reduction.
For example, from Helena to Spokane
the basic Standardization rate will be
S1.5O instead of S1S0; to Portland,
$2.55 instead of $40; to Los Angeles,
S4.15 instead of $3.50; to Minneapolis,
S435 instead of $6.O5; to New York,
$3.50 instead of $3.50. Long distance
cables, carrier systems, vacuum tube
repeaters, loading coils and other i'm
proved devices and methods, result
ing from continuous scientific re-
search and development applied to
the telephone industry, have effected
economies on the longer circuits, and
have a share in making these reduc-
tons possible A few rates for dis
tances between "a and 10 miles will
be adjusted to make the schedule
consistent throughout, but in these
cases the increase Of the basic sta
tion-to-station rate will be only five
cents.
One of the interesting changes from
the publics viewpoint is that by
which one and half hours have been
added to the reduced rate period.
Reduced rates on statiOn-to-station
calls will begin at p. m. instead of
$50 p. m, as formerly. Between 7
p. m. and $50 p. m. the discount will
be approximately 5 per cent of the
day station-to-station rates, and from
$50 p. m. to 4 80 a. M. about 80 per
cent Of the day rates. These discounts
will apply where the day station-to-sta-
ton rate is 40 cents or more, with a
minimum reduced rate of 35 cents. Be
cause of the unsatisfactory service
conditions which is brought about, the
existing midnight discount is discon-
tinued.
Lowest Rates at Eight-thrty
Under the new schedule statiOn-to-
station calls may be made at substan-
tial reductions as early as p. M, and
persons wishing to take advantage Of
the lowest rates of the "a hours may
make their calls any time after $50
y. m. Thus, although the midnight
discount is discontinued, the longer re-
duced rate period and the substantial
reductions applying in basic rates to
distant points mean that this change
will make little difference in the cost
of night calls.
BY this move the company expects
to improve service by eliminating
complications at midnight which have
resulted in delays and put heavy
burden on it's facilities and employees.
At the more important centers it has
meant retaining large force of young
women operators to care for a sudden
and short-lived burst of traffic. Dur
ing much of the time the operators
kept on duty in anticipation of this
temporary rush have had little to do,
then short period in which they have
been entirely too busy to give the best
service, and following that a sharp
tapering off in business at an early
morning hour when few of the girls
could return to their homes.
With this condition growing more
pronounced, the company has been
facing difficult and serious respon-
sibility. It has become necessary to
maintain dormitories in the larger
central offices in which many oper-
ators required only for short period,
have been housed for the rest Of the
night. These hours of duty have, of
course, been undesirable and hard to
fill. The spreading Of the long dis
lance traffic over the heightened re-
duced rate period will relieve this
situation.
Reversal Privilege Extended
Another change that will be well
coined is the extension Of the priv
lege of reversing charges to include
station to station calls = whether
placed during the day, evening or
night-where the rate is % cents or
more. In the last few years the use
of long distance service has been in
creasing constantly and many situa-