Ogden Daily Standard | 1917-03-12 | Page 4 | Bell Company to Spend $90,000,000

00 BELL COMPANY TO SPEND $90,000,000 NEW YORK, March 12 A daily average av-erage of 29, 120.000 telephone calls was recorded in 1916 by the Bell system, sys-tem, which was approximately at the rate of 100 calls a year for every man woman and child in the United States according to the annual statement of the company made public here today It was announced that the pressure of business had been so great that it was planned to spend $90,000,000 this year for improvements, as against $66,000 -' 000 last year. Total operating revenues for 1916 were $264. 600,000, an increase of $30-151,000 $30-151,000 over 1915. The report, of the American Telephone Tele-phone and Telegraph company, separated sepa-rated from that of the Bell system showed net earnings of $44,743 376 an increase of $3,625,889 over 1915. Over the entire Bell system during the year there were added 1,344 770 miles of wire, bringing the total' to I 19,850,315.