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Show "wt"' v ' .-"v r fq m m m -m - -. : I in WINS HONORS. Joe Ott of Cedar City second from left, was honored at a recent luncheon of leading Utah agents for New York Life Insurance Company. Com-pany. He topped the 30 agents of the Provo general office with 1973 sales of $1.7 million. Others shown are, from left, Regional vice president DeWayne A. Ehlert, CLU, San Francisco; Agents John Willis, Ogden, and Hal Tamlin-son, Tamlin-son, Salt Lake City; and Vice President Presi-dent George E. O'Connor, CLU, New York City. Mountain Bell to add new telephone facilities Mountain Bell will spend $675,000 this year for construction of new telephone facilities in Southern Utah, according to Dee Jensen, manager of Mountain Bell's Cedar City office. Jensen said that work will begin this year to install 1,300 new lines onto the Cedar City exchange. The lines will be ready for service by June, 1975, he said. More local and long-distance switching equipment is also being added to the exchange to keep up with the increasing calling demand. A new microwave transmitter, located in Panguitch, was completed in December and will help decrease the load on long-distance cables, Jensen said. In Kanab, Mountain Bell's office is being remodeled to handle 400 new lines that will be added this year. The construction activity is required not only to serve new customers, but to keep pace with the increased demand of existing customers. Jensen pointed out that Utahns maintained their lead as the callingest people in the world, averaging 1,235 calls per person in 1973, a 10 percent increase of 1972. Increased telephone use is making it more costly to provide ' telephone service, particularly during a time of spiraling inflation, in-flation, Wood said. In 1970, for example, Mountain Bell invested an average of $480 on equipment for every telephone, but the cost rose to $548 per telephone in 1973. Mountain Bell will spend a record $70.2 million on construction con-struction projects in Utah this year, which is double the amount spent on construction in 1970. Although the fuel crisis will reduce the growth in residential and business units, it will also have people traveling less and calling more a factor that will put more stress on call switching equipment throughout the state. The telephone company will build three new switching offices this year in Provo, Magna and, the Cottonwood area. New switching equipment is being installed in 41 Mountain Bell offices, while 15 other offices are being expanded to make room for extra equipment in order to meet the increasing calling demands of Utah residents. |