1. - ericssonhistory.com

Mechanization of the Aland Telephone NetworkKNUT VON SCHANTZ, LANDS TELEFONANDELSLAG, GODBYU.D.C. 621.395.34(480.3)In many countries where telephone networks have been converted toautomatic operation the need for comparatively small rural exchanges soonbecame apparent. L M Ericsson's first rural exchange of crossbar type wasdelivered to the Swedish Telecommunications Administration in 1946. Sincethen 68,550 lines have been placed in service up to Jan. 1. 1957.In the present article Mr. Knut von Schantz, head of the A lands Telefonandelslag,gives an account of the results attained through the mechanizationof the Aland network. The article was earlier published in the Finnish journal"Puhelin". but has been revised to include the latest available data.There is a general belief on the mainland that Aland consists of countlessislets and skerries, the inhabitants of which live on fishing and seafaring.Closer acquaintance with the islands, however, brings a different view. Themain island is, in fact, 1,500 sq. kilometres in area with extensive forests,hills and fertile valleys and plains. Several hundred kilometres of roads windthrough the countless villages of the nine parishes, and the thousand oddcars of the 20,000 inhabitants have all the space they need to move about in.— And nonetheless this natural beauty-spot possesses 6,654 rocky islets andskerries of every shape and size spread among a further six parishes.This the most westerly of Finland's telephone zones counts some 4,200subscribers on 50 or so exchanges. The main islands of Aland and Vardohave about 3,500 subscribers. The remaining 700 are scattered throughoutthe surrounding archipelago. Among the former, 1,500 are served by MariehamnsTelefon AB, and the remaining 2,000 by Alands Telefonandelslag.Among the archipelago subscribers 400 in the outer fringe come under theFinnish P.T.T., and 300 on Foglo are distributed among five small undertakingswith as many exchanges.Dial telephones are at present possessed by Mariehamn's 1,500 subscribers.The population of Mariehamn and environs is 6,000. A further 1,000, orone half, of the Alands Telefonandelslag subscribers are connected to theautomatic network. Of the entire number of subscribers 60 % have dialtelephones.Thus it will be seen that the telephone density of Aland is 21 subscribersper 100 inhabitants—in Mariehamn alone 25—compared with 11 per 100 forthe whole of Finland.Opening Stages£P£In 1944 the cable plant of Alands Telefonandelslag had deteriorated to suchan extent that the transfer of the entire undertaking to the P.T.T. appearedthe only possible course. At the last minute, however, it was decided to keepthe company intact; and since the P.T.T. granted a respite of two years toput the network in order, an intense work of reconstruction was set in motion.Fig. IMap of AlandMariehamn had gone over to automatic working in 1942 with the installationof L M Ericsson's AGF system based on 500-line selectors. But it wasto take ten years before the example was followed in the rural areas. The1*— 70.5917