Rural Subscriber Loops via Carrier and Radio

Ever since carrier was developed for trunk usage, carrier for subscriber use, either over wire or radio, has been considered as a means for providing telephone service in rural areas. Starting with the Bell System development of its type power line carrier, there have been 34 years of progress and subscriber carrier is now a reality. It is now beginning to become widely accepted in the telephone industry. Every year improvements in the state of the art are made. There is little doubt today that more and more subscriber carrier on wire lines and radio will be used in future years. This concise paper includes the history of the development of subscriber carrier and radio in the Telephone Program of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). Also, the authors attempt a prognosis of what will happen in the next ten years (or longer). Suggestions are made for improvements still deemed necessary in equipment of this type.