3 1 6 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



XX. RUSSIA 



THE first exchanges in Russia those of St. Petersburg and 

 Moscow, opened in 1881 were due to the enterprise of the Inter- 

 national Bell Telephone Company, which subsequently obtained 

 concessions for, and commenced business in, Lodz, Odessa, Riga, 

 and Warsaw. The rates charged by this company in the two 

 first- named towns (in which it is secured by the terms of its con- 

 cession from competition for a long term of years) have the dis- 

 tinction of being the highest in Europe 257. per annum, out of 

 which it has, in common with all other concessionaries, to pay 10 

 per cent, to the Government. In other towns, however, rates are 

 much more reasonable. In RostofT-on-Don (680 subscribers) 

 and Reval (no subscribers), for instance, for which places Mr. 

 C. Siegel of St. Petersburg holds the concessions, the annual 

 subscriptions are i2/. los. and io/. respectively. The radius 

 allowed is, however, liberal, extending to 3 versts (2^ miles) from 

 the exchange, within which area no extra charge is made. For 

 many persons i2/. or io/. applied in this manner may mean a 

 better bargain than a 5/. rate restricted to one mile. The State 

 has also opened a good many exchanges, and contemplates the 

 construction of an extensive system of trunk lines. 



At date of writing (January 1895) tne Odessa-Nicholaieff is the 

 only one of importance reported finished, although Sebastopol is 

 connected with Simferopol by railway wire, and other inter-town 

 lines have been established for military purposes. 



The system of construction adopted is the single wire, run 

 overhead on roof standards and poles. Way-leaves are reported 

 to be readily obtained on reasonable terms, but no information is 

 forthcoming as to the status of the Government in this connection 

 in the towns it itself exploits. 



