Vol. 207 No. 2
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why a Dublin subscriber dialling 79628 at 4.53 p.m. on 11th December last received dialling tone on dialling three digits; and why it is that such experiences appear to be occurring more frequently in recent months than formerly.
91.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why a Dublin subscriber dialling a trunk call on 044 on 17th December last between 4.15 and 4.30 p.m. obtained dialling tone after the first digit on each occasion; and what steps will be taken to avoid such faults in future.
92.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why a Dublin subscriber dialling 47816 at 4.20 p.m. on 20th December last received dialling tone after the third digit on each occasion.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 90, 91 and 92 together.
I would refer the Deputy to my reply to similar questions asked on 11th December, 1963.
Would the Minister kindly tell us what is the explanation of getting the engaged signal when you have dialled one or two figures of a telephone number?
This deals with an automatic exchange, and it is not possible to say how the difficulties referred to by the Deputy occurred. It is likely they were caused either by temporary congestion or by some fault in part of the equipment.
It is probably due to the fact that the lines are momentarily overloaded?
It could be, or it could be a fault.
93.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of subscribers connected to the Dublin telephone exchange with the initial digits 37; and when steps will be taken to remedy the existing overloading of that exchange.
The number is 5,560. The main equipment necessary to increase the capacity of the exchange was ordered over 12 months ago and installation will commence later this year. Meanwhile, all possible interim measures have been taken and congestion that existed in certain sections of the exchange has been substantially relieved.
94.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why a Dublin subscriber (373360), in December 1963, whenever he lifted his telephone receiver to dial a number, received the engaged tone or for other reasons was unable to dial; if he is aware that the subscriber in question has suffered financial loss because of inability to make or receive telephone calls on the instrument in question; and whether his Department will compensate him in respect of such loss.
Any difficulty of the kind mentioned was probably due to intermittent congestion in a section of the automatic exchange. Additional equipment was recently installed in order to relieve this congestion as far as possible. Further equipment is on order and delivery is expected shortly.
The answer to the second and third parts of the question is in the negative.
95.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why Dublin subscribers dialling numbers beginning with the digits 50 received the engaged tone on dialling the first two digits between 11 a.m. and 12 noon on 14th January last.
It is likely that the difficulty referred to was caused by temporary congestion in the exchange equipment arising from busy traffic conditions.
