TELEPHONE SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS FOR TELEPHONES

Mr Hwang Soo Jin asked the Minister for Communications (a) if he is aware that of late the standard of telephone services in the city area has generally deteriorated; it is increasingly more difficult to get through to a number at the first attempt and there appears to be an increasing number of erroneous calls being put through; and what steps are being taken by the Singapore Telephone Board to improve upon the situation; and (b) what steps are being taken to shorten the waiting period for new applications for telephones which in certain areas can be as long as six months.

Mr Yong Nyuk Lin: Mr Speaker, Sir, the complaints over telephone services raised by the Member for Jalan Kayu may be explained as follows:

The increasing difficulty in getting through to a telephone number at the first attempt is possible during peak periods, especially between the hours of 10.30 a.m, and 12 noon and again between 2.30 and 4 p.m. If a line is engaged, naturally the second caller cannot get through until the first conversation is over.

Yet another reason is the capacity of the automatic exchange. The present demand for telephone facilities has far exceeded planning forecasts. Although the Singapore Telephone Board received the World Bank's approval in December 1969 (only six months ago) of a loan of $33 million (US$11 million) for its $163 million Development Plan for six years (1970-75) with a planned target of 14 per cent per annum rate of growth, this has now been found to be inadequate and the revised 1971 Development Budget which was originally fixed at $29.4 million has just been raised by 30 per cent to $38.3 million.

In respect of the second complaint that there "appears to be an increasing number of erroneous calls being put through", as we are operating an automatic telephone exchange, such errors can largely be caused by the person who dials the telephone. Therefore, it is the human error rather than the fault of the automatic exchange.

It is true that some new applications for telephones have to wait for months before their requirements can be met. Sometimes the Singapore Telephone Board will not even be able to meet the request for telephones, because the applicant happens to live in an area which is rather inaccessible and where it would be just uneconomic to provide such a service. It would cost $30,000 just to fix one line for that particular person.

However, the S.T.B, does make every effort to reduce the waiting time for applicants. Members of this House will be pleased to note that whereas in June last year, there were as many as 3,140 waiters or 3.7 per cent of total working direct exchange lines, the position as at June this year was only 1,850 or 1.8 per cent of direct exchange lines. Therefore, there has been a marked improvement with waiters being reduced by one-half over that of last year.

Mr Hwang Soo Jin (Jalan Kayu): Mr Speaker, Sir, firstly, it appears to me that the planning forecast of the Board was quite wrong, in view of the substantial adjustments that have to be made. Can the Minister inform the House what steps are being taken to ensure a more accurate forecast in future years?

Secondly, the Minister has attributed all the erroneous calls to so-called human errors. I am just wondering whether they could be due possibly to poor maintenance of the exchange rather than to human errors.

Mr Yong Nyuk Lin: We should not be too critical of the planning forecast of the Singapore Telephone Board. In the past, their Five-Year Plan had a target of 12 per cent rate of growth, and the actual achievement turned out to be 14 per cent. So they put up the next Five-Year Plan on the basis of 14 per cent rate of growth per annum, and the actual result came to 16 per cent. So it goes on. I think the credit for all this should be attributed to the political and economic stability of Singapore. There has been tremendous industrial progress, and therefore the demand for telephones has exceeded anticipation. We have to continue to try to keep pace with progress up to a point. If we ask the S.T.B, to forecast the annual growth rate at 20 per cent, and the result turns out to be just 16 per cent, then we are going to overdevelop one aspect of the economic sector, the money for which could very well be used for other sectors.

I have said that the faults are not all due to human error. But most of them are. It is true that poor maintenance has something to do with it. I did not say that it was not entirely a maintenance fault.