COMMUNICATIONS: Phones for Jobs

COMMUNICATIONS Phones for Jobs

Giant $65 billion American Telephone & Telegraph Co. last week announced the biggest of all postwar expansion programs. To improve and modernize the service of its 17 controlled Bell Telephone operating systems, A.T. & T. is ready to spend $2 billion—at least half of it as quickly as materials and manpower are available.

Top billing on A.T. & T.'s program is the quick installation of 2,000,000 new telephones for war-deprived subscribers, plus replacement of 800,000 old telephones which should have been junked long ago. To speed up its long distance service, A.T.& T. will construct 3½ million miles of toll circuits. It will also complete a transcontinental and a north-south (Chicago to New Orleans) cable, each capable of handling telephone conversations and television channels at once.

For the construction work, A.T. & T. thought that it would have jobs for 70,000 additional employes.