192 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURXAL 



between the British Post Office and the American Telephone and 

 Telegraph Company covers such matters as responsibilities of the 

 two administrations, classes of service, rates, broader operating 

 provisions and settlement matters. 



Turning now to the question of the results which are being obtained 

 in this transatlantic service. During the first year, something over 

 2,300 connections were established. This is an average of about 7 a 

 day, if we include Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, on which days 

 as a general rule the flow of telephone traffic is relatively low. Usage 

 is not very different east and west, something like 55 per cent of the 

 business having originated on this side. Some business from the 

 other side is, of course, from traveling Americans. After the first 

 two months, January and February, when the business amounted to 

 about 250 messages a month and was affected largely by formal 

 openings and curiosity calls, the traffic fell off, and during the summer 

 it was not more than half as great as it had been in the first two months. 

 This may have been due partly to falling off in business activities 

 and possibly also partly to the fact that more atmospheric difficulties 

 are experienced during the summer and the service is then somewhat 

 less dependable. As a matter of fact, there was less atmospheric 

 difficulty than we had anticipated. Starting with September, the 

 business has shown a steady increase. On Christmas Day there were 

 44 messages. 



About half of the transatlantic calls are between New York and 

 London. Over 70 per cent of them originate or terminate in New 

 York City and the remaining calls involve points scattered over the 

 rest of the country. Considering the type of usage of this transatlantic 

 service, nearly half of the calls appear to be of a social nature. As 

 to calls for business purposes, banks and brokerage concerns account 

 for the greatest use so far. 



In general, the quality of speech transmission has been more satis- 

 factory than the preliminary tests indicated it would be possible to 

 maintain throughout the year. The radio link is, of course, under 

 careful observation throughout the service period and is not assigned 

 for commercial use unless it appears that reasonably good communi- 

 cation will be obtained. Except for two summer months when 

 atmospheric conditions made telephone communication impossible on 

 an average of about 2 hours a day, the lost time due to static and other 

 such troubles in the radio channel has been relatively small. 



Except for brief periods on individual days, the traffic volume has 

 not been sufficiently high to result in any problem in providing a 

 fairly prompt service. At times, and particularly during the summer 



