OCR Text |
Show 'Phone Growth Phenominal In Last Decade Although the past decade saw the greatest population growth in the history of Cedar City, the telephone growth was much more rapid, according to B. Frank Sutherland, manager of the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph company. Cedar City's population increased in-creased from 4(595 in 1910 to more than 6106 today;, an increase of 30.1 per cent. In the same period, per-iod, the number of telephones in Cedar City grew from 1136 to 2605, an increase of more than 129. 3 per cent. Before World War II, telephone growth was generally moderate but in the last few years of substantially sub-stantially higher incomes, the telephone has become more than just a convenience or luxury in most homes. This has caused a heavy demand for service from existing residents, which, added to the demand from new residents, resi-dents, has resulted in doubling the problem of providing a telephone tele-phone to everyone wherever and whenever it is desired. In spite of this, tremendous strides have been taken. The result, according to Mr. Sutherland, is that since World War II, the demand for telephone service in Cedar City has been the greatest in history, the telephone tele-phone growth has been the greatest great-est in history, and the company has invested more money to provide pro-vide service here than at any time in history. The $20 million mil-lion invested in the past 10 years in Utah is more than the company com-pany had invested in the state during the preceding 30 years. One of the problems of the telephone engineers in a period of such rapid growth is forecasting forecast-ing just where the growth will occur and how rapid it will be. Engineering a major telephone construction job to serve a new subdivision, manufacturing the needed cables, wire and other equipment, and fitting it into the present telephone service generally gen-erally requires a period of from 18 months to two years. The engineers en-gineers must estimate the possible pos-sible growth of the subdivision so that there are enough facilities facili-ties to meet the immediate and forseeable demand. But at the same time, they must exercise care than no more telephone plant is installed than can be used, thus avoiding an investment invest-ment lying idle. So, according to Mr. Sutherland, Suther-land, the problems of the telephone tele-phone engineers in a time of such rapid growth are very difficult. dif-ficult. The objective of the company com-pany is to provide the kind of service customers want where and when they want it. The company, com-pany, within its ability to raise the necessary capital and secure se-cure the necessary equipment and supplies, is moving as rapidly rapid-ly as possible to accomplish this objective, said the manager. |