194 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



by telephone but time is required before they will break away from 

 dependence on other means of communication such as the cables and 

 mails with which they have had long experience and which may have 

 appeared to meet their needs. 



The development of our transcontinental business is of interest as 

 this route may be considered as close a parallel as we can find to the 

 transatlantic situation. For several years after the opening of the 

 transcontinental service, the business was small but it has since 

 greatly increased. 



The transatlantic channel is a radio channel and this suggests a 

 possible lack of privacy such as is obtained in ordinary telephone 

 communication. Actually, the chances for conversations being picked 

 up by persons to whom they would be of interest or value are rather 

 remote, but this possibility has doubtless had some deterrent effect on 

 the development of business. It is expected that these deterrent 

 factors will be removed in the near future through the introduction of 

 new equipment arrangements which will assure a high degree of 

 privacy on these overseas conversations. 



Possibilities for growth must be present in a communication system 

 at the terminals of which we have New York and London, the largest 

 business centers in the world, both English-speaking. On this side, 

 the service has already been extended beyond the United States to 

 Canada and Cuba, and will be extended to Mexico. On the other 

 side the service has recently been extended beyond England, Wales 

 and Scotland to important cities in Belgium, Holland, Germany and 

 Sweden. Further extensions are under consideration to other im- 

 portant continental cities between which and this country there is 

 undoubtedly potential business. As the service is extended beyond 

 Great Britain, a language problem appears. So far about 5 per cent 

 of the conversations are not in English. For the time being, we are 

 relying on the London operators for smoothing out language difficulties 

 in establishing connections and the problem is, of course, not a new 

 one to them. We are planning, however, to set up an operating 

 force here in New York which can communicate in their own language 

 with users who are not speaking in English. 



Not only from a technical viewpoint but in other respects we are 

 gratified at the results of the first year's operation of the transatlantic 

 service and we look forward with confidence that this service will be, 

 not only the quickest, but an essential factor in communication 

 between the old world and the new. 



