Fifty years ago | ‘Aluminium conductors cause phone faults’

Hyderabad, October 6: Due to the extensive use of aluminium conductors, quite often “disconnection faults occur on the telephone lines”, resulting in the telephones becoming ‘dead’, according to Mr. K.S. Krishnamurthy Rao, Sub-Divisional Officer, Telephones, at the Saifabad Exchange here.

In a paper presented at the seminar on “Improved Service to Telephone Users”, organised by the Junior Engineers (Telcom) Association, Mr. Krishnamurthy Rao said an expert committee constituted by the Indian Post and Telegraphs Department had “discouraged” the use of aluminium conductors and suggested “reversion to copper”. “If this is implemented, I am sure, we will be improving our services to a large extent”, he said.

Presiding over the seminar, held at the Regional Telcom Training Centre on Abid Road, Prof Alladi Prabhakar, Head of Osmania University’s Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, called for an integrated telecommunication network which could deal not only with voice communication but also facsimile, video and other media. He emphasised the vital role of electronic switching in this regard.

In his paper, Mr. Krishnamurthy Rao observed that the maintenance aspect had not been forgotten by the department in the course of the vast expansion of telecommunication services.