OVERSEAS RADIO EXTENSION 245 



Development of Interconnecting Links 



The present status of the development of these transoceanic radio- 

 telephone links is illustrated in Fig. 2. There are shown the circuits 

 which are in operation and also the projects which have been reported 

 as under consideration or under construction. These telephone paths 

 will be observed to correspond in general with the routes followed by 

 the ocean telegraph and radiotelegraph serv^ices, in fact with the trade 

 routes of the world, along which community of interest has been built 

 up. Thus a certain orderly arrangement of the services is being 

 realized naturally. 



In general, there may be said to be five major groupings: 



1. The North American-European connections. These are, of course, 



of outstanding importance because of the economic and social 

 interest which exists between the two continents and because 

 they connect with the large telephone wire networks on both 

 sides of the Atlantic. North America and Europe combined 

 account for about 32 million telephones out of a world total of 

 about 35 million. The present situation on the North Atlantic 

 route is discussed later on. 



2. North America-South America. 



3. South America-Europe. 



4. Europe to Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The connections to Africa 



and to Oceania represent the interest which some of the Euro- 

 pean nations have in associated commonwealths and in colonies. 



5. North America to Pacific points and the Far East. These are in 



the construction and project stage. 



Most of these services are being given on a part time basis although 

 that across the North Atlantic has been found to require 24-hour 

 service and that between North and South America is for the full 

 business day. Some of the circuits from Europe to South America 

 and to the East Indies are not yet connected fully into the wire tele- 

 phone network. The circuits which are in operation between South 

 America and Europe instead of connecting into the European network 

 by means of a single station are shared on a part time basis by several 

 stations located in different countries in Europe, as is indicated by 

 the forked lines in the figure. 



One advantage of the use of radio for these services, particularly 

 in this pioneering stage during which traffic over many ot the routes 

 is likely to be small, is the ability to share the use of a transmitting 

 channel as between a number of receiving points where wire lines are 

 not available. A representative case of this kind would be that of an 



