HISTORICAL
of MONT
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THE "VOICE WITH A SMILE ' is being
replaced by modern, automatic telephone
equipment in rural Montana. The old
crank-type phone is giving way to up-to-date
dial phones made of attractive, colored plas
tic that matches the living room drapes.
No longer will rural folks have to count
the number of shoi't and long rings before
answering the telephone, and Junior can
call his girl to make a date without fearing
that everyone on the party line is listening
in on the conversation.
But the automatic equipment is coldly in
different to the subtleties of courtship'. To
prevent monopoly of the telephone
party line, a conversation is automatically
cut off at the end of 6 to 8 minutes.
Junior will have to minimize the prelimi
nary small-talk that usually proceeds the
big question, "Wanna go to a show Saturday
night?"
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8 Co-ops in 27 Counties
Through Montana's eight rural telephone
cooperatives, many farm families in 27
counties of the state are now enjoying this
modern dial service, and when present con
struction plans are completed it will be
available to nearly everyone in these areas.
REA loans to Montana telephone co-ops,
as well as to some private companies, total
more than $7 million. The funds have been
allocated for construction of about 9,000
miles of telephone line to provide service
to nearly 9,800 new subscribers and modern
dial service to about 1,400 present subscrib
ers who are using obsolete equipment.
Telephone bills run from $5 to $6 a
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Mrs. Andrew Brekken of Valley county Is one of the many Montana farm wives
who enjoy the convenience of a modern dial telephone. With a telephone Mrs.
Brekken says they don't have the feeling of being isolated, knowing they
readily call a neighbor, doctor or veterinarian in cases of emergency.
can
COVERS
MONTAN
NORTHERN
WYOMING
month. For this fee the services of a doctor,
veterinarian or machinery repairman are
"as close as the telephone." If a farmer can
save one animal by calling his veterinarian
he will have saved many times over a year's
cost for the phone.
National Program
This modern, automatic dial service be
ing made available to rural Montana is part
of a nation-wide program to modernize the
entire telephone system. When the program
is completed a person in Circle will be able
to call a friend or relative in New York, San
Francisco or Helena as easily as he can call
his next-door neighbor.
Those small buildings about the size of a
one-car garage sitting off by themselves
along the countryside are the automatic,
unattended dial exchanges. Each exchange
is a complete unit containing the automatic
dial equipment, tone signal control, fre
quency carrier, test board for locating noise
a broken line and stand-by batteries to
operate the equipment in case of a power
failure.
or
Montana s telephone construction pro
gram has been made possible through a
1949 Act of Congress which authorized the
REA to make loans to existing telephone
companies and cooperative, nonprofit asso
ciations. In communities not served by a
local company, REA offers technical assist
ance to an organized committee of local resi
dents. Where service is available through
an existing company, loans are made for
improvement and expansion of its service
REA loans bear 2 (continued on page 36)
Î MONTANA COOPERATIVES ARE BRINGING
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TO MORE THAN 10.000
FARMS AND RANCHES
By RAY OZMON, Roving Reporter
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Telephone lines are going up across Montana (moro
than 9,000 miles of REA lines alone) bringing auto
matic dial service to more than 10,000 farms and
ranchers. (MF-S photos)
Lineman Roy Tuel checks over some of the aut<H
matic equipment at the Fairfield exchange.
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