Passenger and cargo transportation for hire, aerial application (crop dusting, spraying, seeding, etc.), patrol, survey, and other miscellaneous work use. 10 Comprises express and freight ton-miles.

11 Includes some military ton-miles and may include a small amount of international traffic. 12 Civil and military.

13 Estimated from information received on Aircraft Use and Inspection Reports. 14 No survey was conducted. Data for 1958-61 have been revised using a correction factor based on the 1962 survey of aircraft use in general aviation. Data for 1963 are based on hours and use reported on aircraft inspection reports adjusted by the same correction factor.

16 The 1962 general aviation survey excluded gliders, dirigibles, and balloons. data have been adjusted to include them.

These

Communications

R 1-92. General note.

Among the primary sources of governmental historical statistics relating to the telephone and telegraph industries are the following:

1. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Compendium of the Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; Compendium of the Tenth Census of the United States, 1880; Statistics of Manufactures, 1890, Census Bulletin No. 196, June 1892.

2. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Quinquennial censuses of the telephone and telegraph industry, 1902-1937: Bulletin No. 17, Special Reports: Telephones and Telegraphs, 1902; Special Reports: Telephones, 1907; Bulletin No. 102, Telegraph Systems: 1907; Telephones and Telegraphs and Municipal Electric Fire-Alarm and Police-Patrol Signaling Systems, 1912; Census of Electrical Industries: 1917, Telegraphs and Municipal Electric Fire-Alarm and Police-Patrol Signaling Systems; Census of Electrical Industries: Telephones-1917, 1922, and 1927; Census of Electrical Industries: Telegraphs-1917, 1922, and 1927; Census of Electrical Industries: Telephones and Telegraphs, 1932 and 1937. (Multiple year titles represent different volumes for each year.)

3. U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission. Reports of telephone and telegraph carriers, 1914-1933:

a. Memorandum Concerning Telephone Companies and Telegraph Companies Reporting to the Interstate Commerce Commission for the Years 1916 and 1917 (processed).

b. Annual Report on Telephone Companies, 1920–1927, 1928-1932, and 1933 (processed); Annual Report on Telegraph Companies, 1926-1927, 1928-1932, and 1933 (processed). 4. U.S. Congress. Report on Communication Companies (Splawn Report), issued as House Report No. 1273, 73d Cong., 2d sess. (1934) in connection with the consideration of the Communications Act of 1934. This report contains detailed data from the carrier reports filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission and also the results of a questionnaire to the telephone, telegraph, and radio industries for 1922-1932.

5. U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Reports of telephone and telegraph companies filed monthly and annually with that agency, 1934-1970. Selected data from these reports have been issued either monthly or quarterly, and annually (in processed form), in the Commission's annual reports to Congress and beginning 1939, in the FCC's annual Statistics of the Communications Industry in the United States.

6. U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Investigation of the Telephone Industry in the United States, House Document No. 340, 76th Cong., 1st sess. (1939). This report includes the results of the Commission's investigation of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T). Page 609 of the report refers to a number of staff reports, or exhibits, containing more detailed statistical and other material prepared in connection with the investigation and issued in processed form. These staff exhibits and reports are listed under the title, Special Investigation Docket No. 1.

7. Statistics for 1926-1934 obtained by the Federal Communications Commission from telephone and telegraph companies and designed to afford the FCC a basis for determining whether carrier rates were just and reasonable and in enforcement of other statutory responsibilities. (The text of the tele

phone inquiry appears in "Telephone Division Order No. 9," FCC, Reports, vol. 1, p. 49; the text of the telegraph inquiry is in "Telegraph Division Order No. 12," FCC, Reports, vol. 1, p. 28. Responses are available to the public at the Commission.) Other major sources of telephone and telegraph statistics are the annual reports to stockholders by AT&T (Bell), the Western Union Telegraph Company, and statistics of independent (i.e., non-Bell) telephone companies compiled and published by the United States Independent Telephone Association.

A major factor affecting the statistics of the telephone and telegraph carriers has been the prescription of uniform systems of accounts for these companies by the Interstate Commerce Commission and by the Federal Communications Commission after its formation in 1934. The ICC prescribed a uniform system of accounts for telephone companies having annual operating revenues exceeding $50,000, effective January 1, 1913, and for telegraph carriers, effective January 1, 1914. The ICC issued more detailed accounting systems, effective January 1, 1933, for Class A companies, and condensed classifications for Class B companies, effective January 1, 1934. The FCC adopted a revised uniform system of accounts for Class A and Class B telephone companies, effective January 1, 1937. The outstanding change was a requirement that telephone plant be recorded in the accounts at original cost, i.e., cost at time of first dedication to public use. The FCC adopted a revised uniform system of accounts for Class C telephone companies, effective January 1, 1939 (the earlier ICC system had been established, effective January 1, 1915). The FCC differentiates among Class A, B, and C companies on the basis of operating revenues, which have had varying limits over the years. The reporting authority of the FCC relates only to telephone and telegraph carriers engaged in interstate and foreign communication which cross State or national boundary lines over their own facilities or through connection with facilities of an affiliated carrier having such facilities. Thus, carriers filing reports with the FCC (with the exception of a small number of companies filing voluntarily) exclude a large number of small, and a few large, telephone companies.

R 1-45. General note.

The Bell System provides the great bulk of local exchange and interexchange or toll telephone facilities and service in the United States. It includes the parent company of the Bell operating telephone companies, consolidated with "associated holding and operating companies in the United States, not including connected independent or sublicensee companies." The figures as presented are "statements of the Bell Telephone business as a whole, eliminating all duplications and showing the figures and results as ‘if operated by a single company.'" The parent company has been American Telephone and Telegraph Company since January 1, 1900; prior to that date it was the American Bell Telephone Company. The number of companies included within the Bell group has varied from time to time. In 1914, approximately 35 companies were included and in 1915-1916 the number increased to 39. Subsequent consolidations reduced the number to 29 in 1920 and to 25, including Cincinnati Bell, Inc., and Southern New England Telephone Company in 1970. Since 1936, however, AT&T in its consolidated financial statements has excluded these 2 large noncontrolled companies. For comparability with previous years, however, the figures have been adjusted to include

these 2 companies using reports filed by them with the FCC. "Bell companies" and "Bell System" are at times used interchangeably herein. Unless otherwise specified, the reference is to "Bell System." Included in the Bell organization in 1970 were the following: 1. AT&T, which is the parent company.

2. 21 regional subsidiaries owned and controlled by AT&T, plus a subsidiary of one of these regional companies. These 22 Bell System principal telephone subsidiaries furnish exchange and intrastate toll service, as well as interstate toll telephone service; they constitute, with the parent, the Bell System of 1970.

3. Two other major companies, Cincinnati Bell, Inc. and Southern New England Telephone Company, in which AT&T has substantial minority interests. These 2 companies, together with the 22 above, are referred to as the Associated Companies. 4. Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., a scientific research and development organization, and Western Electric Company, Inc., which is the Bell manufacturing and supply organization.

In addition, a number of Bell Company affiliates have varying degrees of stock interest in various other telephone companies. Data for series R 1-30 relating to the Bell companies exclude operations of Bell Telephone Laboratories and of Western Electric, except as their operations affect operating expenses and miscellaneous income of the Bell companies. Bell Telephone Laboratories operates on a nonprofit basis and the profits of Western Electric on sales to the Bell companies are not eliminated in the consolidated statements.

The historical growth of the Western Electric Company is described in the FCC Report... on the Investigation of the Telephone Industry..., pp. 56-64. More recent data appear in the "Report on Preliminary Survey and Investigation of Western Electric Company, Inc.," prepared by a committee of National Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners and FCC representatives (July 15, 1948, processed), and in annual supplements since 1948. In 1970, AT&T's annual share of the net income of Western Electric was over $253 million.

Independent companies are referred to as non-Bell companies, although AT&T or Bell companies have financial interests in some of them. The independents participate with Bell in providing toll service, and have contractual arrangements with AT&T and the Bell Associated companies.

R 1 and R 3-8. Total telephones, Bell System telephones, and telephones of independent companies, 1876-1970.

Source: U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data; American Telephone and Telegraph Company, unpublished data; and the following U.S. Bureau of the Census reports: Telephones and Telegraphs, 1902, table 2, for total telephones in 1880, 1890; table 4, for total telephones in 1902; table 6, for Bell System telephones in 1902; Telephones, 1907, table 51, for total telephones in 1907; table 54, for Bell System telephones; Telephones and Telegraphs..., 1912, table 1, for total telephones and Bell System telephones in 1912; p. 37 for telephones connecting with the Bell System; Telephones and Telegraphs, 1932, table A for total telephones in 1917, 1922, 1927, and 1932; table 12, for Bell System telephones in 1922, 1927, and 1932; Telephones and Telegraphs, 1937, table 1, for total telephones and Bell System telephones in 1937.

The data for 1876-1934 (except census data) were taken from FCC records consisting of Special Investigation Docket No. 1, "Report on Control of Telephone Communications,” vol. III, Exhibit 2096-D, p. 11 (June 15, 1937, processed), and “Report on American Telephone and Telegraph Company Corporate and Financial History," vol. I, Exhibit 1360-A, pp. 115 and 150. The data for 1935-1956 were supplied to FCC by AT&T; substantially the same data are also available in the AT&T annual reports to stockholders. The data for 1957-1970 were supplied by AT&T, compiled from annual reports and unpublished data.

The number of telephones comprises the total number of instruments and extensions in the system. Telephones also include tele

graph and teletypewriter stations through 1930 and private line telephones through 1934, but not thereafter. Lines, basically for internal use, on which outside calls to public phones cannot be placed constitute private line telephones.

The households with telephones are based on census figures, utilized by AT&T in conjunction with the number of telephones in residences.

R 2. Telephones per 1,000 population, 1876-1970.

Source: 1876-1956, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data (except for census data). For census data and 1957-1970, see source for series R 1 and R 3-8.

Annual figures are based on data supplied to FCC by AT&T.

R 9-12. Average daily conversations, 1880-1970.

Source: U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data. Figures are based on data supplied to FCC by AT&T.

Generally, exchange service is telephone service within an exchange area. A local call is defined as a call originating in and completed within the same public exchange area; a toll call is one which originates in one exchange destined to another exchange area, whether located nearby or across the continent. In instances in which there is a high community of interest between exchanges, accompanied by considerable calling on a message toll basis, "extended area service" has been established under which adjacent and nearby exchanges are included in the subscriber's local service area. The growth of this type of service each year has significantly affected the number of calls classified as local, which otherwise would have been classified and charged as toll. Moreover, elimination of toll charges through the establishment of extended area service has tended to stimulate telephone usage within the service area.

Conversations are those completed calls originating from company and service telephones, excluding private line telephones. Local calls include both completed and uncompleted calls. Bell System toll messages consist of interstate and intrastate completed calls originated or terminated at Bell System Associated Company telephones, and toll messages originated or terminated at connecting (i.e., independent) company telephones, provided their transmission utilized toll line facilities of a Bell operating company. Toll messages handled wholly over facilities of connecting or nonconnecting independent companies are shown under Independent Companies. Toll message figures include ship-to-shore messages and international messages. Since a toll ticket is made for each toll call, the count can be relatively exact. In very large exchanges, some counts of local calls are automatically accumulated in message registers but in small exchanges the counts are estimates based upon samples.

R 13-16. Telephone toll rates between New York City and selected cities, 1902-1970.

Source: 1902, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Special Reports: Telephones and Telegraphs, 1902, p. 77; 1911–1970, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data.

Data for 1911-1917 are based on records of AT&T, newspapers, and other published reports. Data for 1919-1937 are based on information in FCC, Telephone Rate and Research Department, "The Classified Toll Rate Structure and Basic Rate Practices for Message Toll Telephone Service," pp. 40-47 (Jan. 15, 1938, processed). Data for 1940-1970 are based on unpublished data and tariffs of the FCC. Considerable historical toll rate data also appear in the report of a committee of National Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners (NARUC) and FCC representatives, Message Toll Telephone Rates and Disparities, annual October issues.

The three major classes of toll telephone messages are dial stationto-station, operator station-to-station, and person-to-person. Dial station-to-station service denotes that service where the person originating the call from other than a coin telephone station dials

the telephone number desired and the call is completed without the assistance of a telephone company operator.

In interstate toll service, operator station rates are over 10 percent higher than dial station rates, and person-to-person rates are over twice the amount of the rates for dial station service. On station calls, the starting point is computed at the time communication is established between the calling and called stations; on person-toperson calls, the chargeable period begins when the person called is reached. There was generally no rate differentiation between station and person service until January 21, 1919.

A paucity of historical data exists with respect to local exchange rates. Such data can only be laboriously constructed from the records of the Bell System companies and other telephone companies or from the tariffs filed with each State which has regulatory authority over the intrastate telephone rates. One source of data pertaining to exchange rates is the Bureau of Census report, Telephones and Telegraphs and Municipal Electric Fire-Alarm and Police-Patrol Signaling Systems, 1912, pp. 49-156, which presents telephone rates of selected cities in 38 States and the District of Columbia. Another source of exchange rate data is provided by the responses of telephone companies to FCC, "Telephone Division Order No. 9," which called for rates in effect in selected size exchanges between 1907 and 1933. These responses are on file at the FCC.

R 17-18. Telephone plant, book value and depreciation reserves, 1880-1970.

Source: 1885-1935, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data consisting of Special Investigation, Docket No. 1 "Report on American Telephone and Telegraph Company Corporate and Financial History," vol. I, Exhibit No. 1360-A (Jan. 16, 1937, processed), pp. 73, 102; vol. II, Exhibit No. 1360-B, Schedule 2 (appendix); "Report on Associated Bell Telephone Companies Financial and Operating Data," Exhibit No. 1364 (Jan. 23, 1937), Schedule A-15; 1936-1956, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, annual reports, and FCC, unpublished data; 1957-1970, AT&T, annual reports and unpublished data.

Census data are from the following U.S. Bureau of the Census volumes: Compendium of the Tenth Census, 1880, p. 1332; Telephones and Telegraphs, 1902, table 6, p. 7; Telephones and Telegraphs..., 1912, table 29; Telephones, 1917, table 33; Telephones, 1922, table 34; Telephones and Telegraphs, 1982, table 17, and 1937, table 1 (see general note for series R 1-92 for complete list of census sources).

The FCC's uniform system of accounts, which became effective January 1, 1937, requires establishment of telephone plant accounts on the basis of original cost (cost at time of first dedication to the public use). This applies to all plants ordinarily having a service life of more than one year as well as franchises, patents, rights of way, leaseholds, and other interests in land.

The depreciation policies of the Bell System have undergone various changes from a simple maintenance reserve set up for the purpose of equalizing maintenance charges over a period of years and providing for deferred maintenance expenses, to depreciation rates prescribed by the FCC. Prescription of depreciation rates for Bell companies began in 1949 and initial prescriptions were completed in 1953. For a discussion of Bell System depreciation policies, see Report of the Federal Communications Commission on the Investigation of the Telephone Industry in the United States, pp. 325–349.

R 19. Miles of wire, 1880-1970.

Source: 1880-1884, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, unpublished financial report; 1885-1935, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data consisting of Special Investigation Docket No. 1, Exhibit No. 1360-A, pp. 76, 115; 1936-1956, AT&T, annual reports, and FCC, unpublished data; 1957-1970, see source for series R 17-18.

Census data are from the following U.S. Bureau of the Census volumes: Compendium of the Tenth Census, 1880, p. 1327; Telephones

and Telegraphs, 1902, table 2; Telephones, 1922, table 21; Telephones and Telegraphs, 1937, table 14.

Miles of wire are not an adequate index of the growth in telephone capacity for a variety of reasons: The shift from single open wire lines to complex cable systems including coaxial tubes; use of carrier systems to increase significantly the number of communication channels over a band of frequencies transmitted over an electrical circuit; and use of microwave radio systems not included in the statistics of wire lines.

R 20-22 and R 27-28. Operating revenues, net income, and dividends, 1880-1970.

Source: 1881-1914, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data consisting of Special Investigation Docket No. 1, Exhibit No. 1360-A, pp. 39, 54, 73, 81, 89, 109 (for operating revenues and division between local and toll revenues, 1900-1914, Schedule B-2 of Special Investigation Docket No. 1, Exhibit No. 1364 combined with Long Lines revenues from p. 395 of Exhibit 1360-B); 1915-1956, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, annual reports, and FCC, unpublished data; 1957-1970, see source for series R 17-18.

Census data are from the following U.S. Bureau of the Census reports (see general note for series R 1-92 for detailed listing of sources): Compendium of the Tenth Census, 1880, p. 1329; Statistics of Manufactures, 1890, pp. 1, 5; Telephones, 1907, table 36; Telephones and Telegraphs..., 1912, table 29; Telephones, 1917, tables 21, 30, and 31; Telephones, 1922, tables 2, 31, 32; Telephones, 1927, table 1; Telephones and Telegraphs, 1932, table 1, and 1937, table 1.

Figures for series R 20-22 for 1900-1914 have been adjusted by the FCC by subtracting uncollectible operating revenues so that they are comparable with figures for 1915-1970.

Operating revenues include monthly service charges; amounts charged for connection, restoration and termination of service, and for moves, instrument changes, and similar service requirements; initial nonrecurring charges for plant or equipment, except initial charges based on the cost of specially assembled private branch exchanges; and amounts of service charges for supplemental or auxiliary equipment as extension stations and auxiliary receivers. Operating revenues include the telegraph services of the Bell System, including revenues derived from teletypewriter exchange service (TWX), and private line service; international radiotelephone service; directory advertising and sales; and rent revenues.

Net income is net operating income and other income, including dividend income and interest income, including interest charged to construction; minus miscellaneous deductions from income and fixed charges (as interest deductions). All of the Bell System operations are included; however, as noted below (see text for series R 25), prior to 1933 only the dividends from controlled companies not consolidated were included.

Dividends declared refer to the entire Bell System operations, excluding dividends paid by one system company to another.

R 23. Operating expenses, 1880-1970.

Source: 1885-1907, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, unpublished data consisting of Special Investigation Docket No. 1, Exhibit 1360-A, pp. 54, 73, 109 (figures for operating expenses derived by subtracting net earnings from revenues); 1908-1935, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, annual reports; 1936-1956, AT&T, annual reports, and FCC, unpublished data; 1957-1970, see source for series R 17-18. For census data, see source for series R 20-22 and R 27-28.

For 1885-1907, FCC's figures include all taxes (including Federal income taxes) and interest expense and miscellaneous income. For 1908-1913, figures also include Federal income taxes. For 19141920, figures were adjusted to exclude estimated amounts of Federal income taxes by use of annual reports of the individual Bell Telephone