The Omaha guide., 1945-09-15
FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS

The Northwestern Bell Telephone
Company's construction program
provides for an expenditure Of a
bout $50, OOO. 600 each year for the
next five years for requirements de-
ferred during the war and for SER
vice improvements and extensions.
according to G. d. Gietzen. District
Manager of the Company here. The
Company operates in the states of
Iowa, Minnesota. Nebraska, and
North and oSuth Dakota.
The Company's first aim will be
to provide facilities to serve those
who are waiting for telephone SER
vice. During the war, it was not
possible to add enough t telephone
facilities to meet all non-military
service needs. However. now that
the war is over. the Company is
acting as promptly as conditions
permit not only to meet the backed
up demand for telephone service
but also to service improve
ments, restore margins in its plants
catch-up on maintenance work, and
make deferred requirements.
Manufacturers of telephone equip
ment for several ears have been
producing specialized equipment for
military purposes almost exclus-
lively. Telephone factories are now
being converted to meet the ire
mendous civilian telephone needs
which have accumulated. Switch
boards. wire, cable and telephone
instruments will be produced rap
idly as possible and installation
work will be rushed to the limit.
However, telephone equipment is
complex and the task of manufact-
uring and installing it is time-cOn-
Stunning. Hence. a considerable per-
iod viii be required to bring tele-
service back to prewar standards.
The more important projects the
Company will undertake in the post
war period are: I'D Provide the e.
quipment and lines necessary to
take care Of the untitled orders for
telephone service. There are about
50. 900 applicants for telephone SER
vice in communities where the North
western Company operates, and a.
bout 1000. 900 throughout the Bell
System. who have been unable to
telephone facilities Of various kinds
In order to stretch the existing fac
~ilities, many people are being serv-
ed on party lines whose require
ments are not fully met by this type
of service. There is also a large
number of residence customers who
desire extension telephones which
cannot be provided now.
(2) Improve rural telephone ser
vice and make it available in areas
not now being served. The present
rural lines of the Company are so
placed, that, taking the localities
where the Company operates as a
whole, 80 percent of all rural fam
lilies can be provided telephone ser
vice at the ordinary charges. In
many districts, nearly all OF the
rural families now have telephone
service available to them owe these
lines. 1t is the Company's inten-
ton insofar as reasonably and prac
ticable to make telephone service a
valuable to every farm in the %territ-
DRY, it serves. and every practicable
step is being taken to accomplish
this as rapidly as conditions permit.
The Company's farm service pro-
gram may require expenditures as
high as IS 5000 600.
go Enlarge the telephone plant
generally so as to restore the mar
gins required to provide promptly
! the class Of service desired and to
furnish long distance service gener-
ally on a no-delay basis, as was
done in prewar days.
ca Catch up on the maintenance
work which had to be deferred dur