COLUMN: Carillon Flashback October 4, 1957 – Long distance service elates telephone users

Calling long distance in Steinbach has become a pleasant and a surprisingly effortless task, and is as simple as calling a local number and is often faster. It is part of a new telephone service that was started August 23, 1957.

It was on that day that engineers at the Manitoba Telephone System connected the last wires and a Steinbach operator first dialed directly to a number in Winnipeg. The change was the first step in a series of improvements planned for the area by the Manitoba Telephone System.

It is doubtful that anything in Steinbach has been received with more enthusiasm than the improved telephone service. One resident told The Carillon News that it was the best thing to happen since the tractor took over from the ox.

“At last, calling long distance is faster than driving to the city.”

And for 10 Steinbach businessmen, the service is even faster, for they got together to establish a “foreign exchange.” Their 10 private lines allow the Steinbach firms to dial directly to any number in Winnipeg without long distance fees. Winnipeg residents are able to dial directly to the 10 Steinbach firms as if they were in Winnipeg, also without paying long distance fees.

While the “foreign exchange” service is expensive, Steinbach Chamber of Commerce president John D. Penner says it still presents an inexpensive way to tap into the huge potential of Winnipeg business.

Steinbach Mayor K.R. Barkman and the chamber president launched the new direct line service early in September by calling the Manitoba Minister of Public Utilities to let him know that the private lines had just been put into service by the Manitoba Telephone System.

The names and telephone numbers of the 10 Steinbach firms offering the service are listed in the Greater Winnipeg Telephone Directory which was issued in June.

To regular MTS subscribers, who are not part of the “foreign exchange” , long distance service also still became a lot faster this year.

The new long distance service, launched Aug. 23, is faster because it enables Steinbach telephone operators to dial the number directly, instead of first relaying that intention to an operator at St Pierre. New telephone lines from Winnipeg to Steinbach means that all of the Southeast will be receiving better long distance service in the near future.

Steinbach operators still also have access to St Pierre lines for long distance calls on busy days.

Officials of the Manitoba Telephone System have also completed their plans for the establishment of an exchange area in and around Steinbach. These plans were outlined to Steinbach council and the local telephone board at a meeting earlier this year.

Steinbach will soon become the toll operating service for automatic switchboards at Kleefeld, Grunthal, Niverville, Chortitz and Blumenort. Dial telephone operation has been approved for Steinbach, Kleefeld, Greenland and Niverville.

A new telephone system building in Steinbach was started late in April and is scheduled to be ready for full operation by November of next year.

And what lies ahead for telephone communications would appear to be as distant a possibility as Alexander Graham Bell’s first prediction in 1874, that people would soon be able to communicate over a wire.

Bell’s invention of the telephone was one of two significant events in 1874. The other was the arrival of Mennonites in Steinbach.

In July of 1874, when Bell conceived the idea of transmitting voice over a wire, Manitoba was a postage stamp province, about to receive its first group of Mennonite settlers.