In all Great Britain there are but 700,000 telephones as against 10,000,000 in the United States. France has slightly more than half as many as Greater New York. In Germany the telephone development is only one-fifth of that of the United States. Italy has not as many telephones as San Francisco, and all Russia, fewer than Chicago. Sweden, Norway and Denmark show a higher telephone development than the other European countries, but even in Denmark, where the telephone development is highest, we find but 3.9 telephones per hundred population—less than half the development in the United States.
The total number of telephones in all other European countries is considerably less than may be found in two American cities, Chicago and Philadelphia; all of South America has less than Boston, and the remainder of the world, including Asia, Africa and Oceanica, has less than the City of New York.
| Pole Line Running Through Principal Street in an Italian Town | A Typical Example of American Pole Line Construction |
American Telephone Practice Superior.
The superior telephone development in America is largely due to the efficiency of American telephone equipment and practice. The mechanical development has not only kept pace with public needs, but has anticipated them.
It is the practice of the Bell System, for example, to make what are called “fundamental development plans,” in which a forecast is made of the telephone requirements of each American city twenty years ahead. The construction in each city is begun with these ultimate requirements in view. Underground conduits are built, central offices located and cables provided with an eye to the future, and if these plans are carried out important economies are obtained. If the plans are abandoned, the loss may be very great. Furthermore, there are sure to be times when the service will be interrupted and seriously impaired if such plans for the future are not made and consistently carried out.
| American Method of Raising Poles by Derrick with Power Furnished by Motor-Truck. | One of the Varied Types of Desk Telephones Used in France |
| The Standard American Desk Telephone | Tile Conduits Used in American Underground Construction |
It is characteristic of the best telephone management that while it cannot always perfectly forecast the direction of immediate growth, it should be built far enough ahead of present requirements to have a pair of wires ready for each new customer. The fact that New York and other large American cities have a considerable investment in telephone plant constructed to meet a prospective demand, is the price which must be paid by any telephone management which really supplies the wants of the American people. Every additional subscriber that is connected with the system, requires sooner or later an outlay of new capital for his proportionate share of the whole plant, including equipment, wires, poles, cables, switchboards and real estate. In America the new subscriber finds his need anticipated and the facilities provided.