260 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



charges collected for conversations that could not be held. If a 

 line is interrupted for more than three days from any cause what- 

 soever, a proportionate part of the annual subscription must be 

 returned to the subscriber ; if the interruption is one which 

 might have been avoided by care and attention, the subscription 

 for its whole duration must be refunded. If such an interruption 

 continues more than ten consecutive days, the subscriber may 

 claim damages to the tune of double his subscription for the 

 period of the interruption ; and if it lasts fifteen days he may, if 

 he chooses, terminate his agreement as well. These regulations 

 are certainly calculated to engender a sense of responsibility and 

 to conduce to careful construction and good maintenance, but at 

 the same time their enforcement in the case of interruptions due 

 to fire, floods, snow, or extraordinary tempests is unjust to the 

 concessionaries, and cannot be productive of good. 



A Swiss company, with headquarters at Zurich, is the owner 

 of thirteen concessions, while a good many have been taken up 

 by French companies, and a few by co-operative societies. The 

 capabilities of the telephone, as measured by the services rendered 

 to the public, have not yet been exhausted in Italy. The internal 

 trunks are yet on paper ; the international ones have scarcely 

 reached even that stage ; there is no telephoning of messages for 

 local delivery or for mailing ; the public telephone stations are 

 few, and there appears to be no messenger organisation. With 

 the exception of Brescia, all the Italian exchanges are run on the 

 single-wire plan, and, again with the exception of the Brescia, are 

 exclusively overhead. 



SERVICES RENDERED AND TARIFFS 



i. Local exchange communication. The rates charged by 

 the different concessionaries vary greatly. Some of them have 

 made a uniform price for connection within the legal three-kilo- 

 meter radius ; others have divided that radius into two, and others 

 again into three zones, taking care that the maximum charge does 

 not exceed that fixed by law. 



