Telephone Landline Research Articles

COVID-19, subjective resilience, adaptive, and coping capacities in hurricane-prone regions

This study focuses on understanding perceptions of recovery and resilience by employing the theoretical lens of subjective resilience, adaptive, and coping capacities to understand individual cognition of risks and perceptions of recovery from the pandemic for those living in hurricane-prone areas. We explore several factors affecting perceptions of resilience and recovery, such as capacities to adapt and cope, risk perceptions, communication sources, levels of physical and social vulnerabilities, the ability to prepare for hurricanes during the pandemic, perceptions of government policies, social capital, and partisanship. To analyze these factors, we use individual-level data that were collected using a survey population drawn from both random (via telephone landlines) and nonrandom (via the internet) sampling in Florida. We find that expectations of recovery were positively associated with several factors, including risk perceptions with higher levels of concern about the pandemic, higher self-reported levels of stress, lack of preparation for a hurricane making landfall during the pandemic, less social connectedness, and political party affiliation. The results help inform pandemic preparedness and management.

Associations between COVID-19 Death Exposure and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Vaccine Uptake.

The aim of the study was to determine the relation between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) death exposure and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and vaccine uptake among Arkansans, controlling for sociodemographic factors. Data were collected from a telephone survey administered in Arkansas between July 12 and July 30, 2021 (N = 1500) via random digit dialing of telephone landlines and cellular telephones. Weighted data were used to estimate regressions. Controlling for sociodemographic variables, COVID-19 death exposure was not a significant predictor of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy (P = 0.423) or COVID-19 vaccine uptake (P = 0.318). Younger individuals, those with lower levels of education, and those who live in rural counties were more likely to be COVID-19 vaccine hesitant. Older individuals, Hispanic/Latinx individuals, those who reported higher levels of education, and those who reported living in urban counties were more likely to have reported receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Many efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccines have focused on prosocial norms, including encouraging vaccination to protect the community from COVID-19 infection and death; however, COVID-19 death exposure was not related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy or uptake in the present study. Future research should examine whether prosocial messaging is effective in decreasing hesitancy or motivating some individuals to receive the vaccine among those who have been exposed to COVID-19 deaths.

Hesitant adopters: An examination of hesitancy among adults in Arkansas who have taken the COVID-19 vaccine.

Recent research suggests people who report vaccine hesitancy may still get vaccinated; however, little is known about hesitancy among those who chose to vaccinate. The current study focused on individuals who received the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) vaccine despite their hesitancy, whom we refer to as “hesitant adopters.” With the understanding that vaccine attitudes and vaccine behaviors may or may not be correlated, we examined the prevalence of COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy among those who have been vaccinated, how COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy varies across sociodemographic groups, and how COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy relates to other factors (prior health care access and influenza vaccination behavior over the past 5 years). Random digit dialing of telephone landlines and cell phones was used to contact potential survey respondents, rendering a sample of 1500 Arkansan adults. Approximately one‐third of those who received a COVID‐19 vaccine also reported some level of hesitancy. Among hesitant adopters, 5.3% said they were “very hesitant,” 8.8% said they were “somewhat hesitant,” and 17.1% said they were “a little hesitant.” Black/African American and Hispanic/Latinx respondents reported more hesitancy than White respondents, and female respondents reported greater hesitancy compared to male respondents. Greater hesitancy was associated with non‐metro/rural residence, forgoing health care due to cost, and lower influenza vaccination rates over the past 5 years. Findings suggest those who are hesitant may get vaccinated despite their hesitancy, illustrating the complexity of vaccination behaviors. Prevalence of hesitancy among the vaccinated has implications for communication strategies in vaccine outreach programs and may help to reduce stigmatization of hesitant adopters.

ICT Infrastructure and Economic Growth in G-20 Countries: New Insights form ARDL Modelling

This paper examines the long-run relationship between information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and economic growth in G-20 countries for the period 1961–2019. We use six different indicators of ICT infrastructure, namely telephone landlines, mobile phones, internet users, internet servers, fixed broadband, and a composite index. Using autoregressive distributive (ARDL) cointegration technique, the study warrants the support of long-run relationship between ICT infrastructure and economic growth in a few cases, typically with reference to a particular ICT infrastructure indicator and economic growth we use. Using vector error correction model (VECM) for testing the Granger causalities, the study acknowledges mixed evidence of the relationship between the ICT infrastructure and economic growth in the G-20 countries, both by individual country and at the panel setting. In some instances, ICT infrastructure leads to economic growth, lending support to supply-leading hypothesis (S) of ICT infrastructure-growth nexus. In other instances, it is the economic growth that engenders the level of ICT infrastructure, lending support to demand-following hypothesis (D) of ICT infrastructure-growth nexus. There are also circumstances, where ICT infrastructure and economic growth are mutually interdependent. That is the situation where both are self-reinforcing and offer support to feedback hypothesis (F) of ICT infrastructure-growth nexus. In addition, there are also instances, where the ICT infrastructure and economic growth are independent of each other. This is the situation where both are neutral and offer support to neutrality hypothesis (N) of ICT infrastructure-growth nexus. To summarize, Granger causality results vary from country to country within the G-20 countries, depending upon the type of ICT infrastructure and economic growth that we use in a particular empirical exploration process. The policy implication of this study is that the economic policies should recognize the differences in the ICT infrastructure and economic growth in order to maintain sustainable development in these G-20 countries.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Exploring the Determinants of Internet Access in Emerging Economies

Abstract With the rapid developments and changes in technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution being witnessed everywhere, this study aimed to investigate the factors that influence access to the internet by households in emerging economies with a direct focus on South Africa one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Access to broadband facilities by individuals, households and consumers is one of the critical components of the economic growth and prosperity of a country. It is generally believed that the access to broadband technologies by a community or nation helps to increase productivity which assists a lot in fueling economic growth which will have an impact on the levels of poverty. Using the logistic regression, the study found out that race, access to telephone landline, access to a cellular cellphone, access to electricity, owning a house, gender, age of the household head, net household income per month, and household expenditure were the significant variables in influencing the demand for internet access by households in emerging economies. The factors that were more important in the influence on access to the internet were the availability of electricity and access to a cellphone. Therefore, the study concludes that to improve the quality of life of the people, it is imperative that the governments across the world, do invest more in improving access to quality internet, but one of the prerequisites is that households should have a stable electricity supply and they have access to cellphones.

A quantitative approach to ranking corporate law precedents in the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice

This paper aims to contribute to the goal of finding influential legal precedents by quantitative methods. A lot of work has been made in this direction worldwide, especially in the context of common law jurisdictions. However, this type of work is extremely scarce in the Brazilian literature. In addition, our work also contributes to the research of network analysis and the law by applying these methods to unprecedented amount of data and narrowing our inquiry to a single law area, corporate law. Furthermore, whereas most of the literature applying network analysis to judicial decisions had access to readily available data on the citations to precedent within each ruling, our raw data was nothing but the full text of decisions. We focus on data produced by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the highest court in Brazil for matters of federal law, including statutory interpretation of civil, criminal and corporate law. The Court issued an astonishing 282040 opinions tagged as related to corporate law between 2008 and 2018. This amount of cases is unparalleled internationally for superior courts and for studies in network analysis and law. In our results, we rank precedents quantitatively based on the citations they receive and make. We also qualitatively analyze some of the results, especially related to groups identified in the network with the Modularity algorithm. Our findings also reveal that corporate law jurisprudence in the STJ is quantitatively dominated by a few legal issues around one single theme that is only tangentially related to corporate law. That is, a type of contract used for the expansion of telephone landlines, which also allowed the consumer to become a shareholder of the telecommunication company. This comparison is especially pertinent because the utter lack of data on the quantitative weight of STJ precedents means the national literature has been operating in a void of objective measurements, one which has been filled with cherry-picked rulings and subjective ranking criteria.

Effects of Infrastructure Service Disruptions Following Hurricane Irma: Multilevel Analysis of Postdisaster Recovery Outcomes

Widespread power outages and related critical infrastructure disruptions after major storms can thwart household and community recovery by limiting access to critical facilities and services. In this analysis, we examine the impact of infrastructure disruptions on the individual, household, and community recovery using logistic regressions and multilevel mixed-effects models with a four-level hierarchical structure: household, urban/rural, county, and region. Household-level recovery is assessed using responses from a cross sectional survey (n=988) collected through telephone landlines and an online platform in 29 Florida counties eight months after Hurricane Irma. We find that the severity of the damage, number of days without electricity, insurance, and access to health services are significant predictors of household recovery. At the county level, the percent of accounts served by rural and municipal cooperatives, as well as the percent of individuals with disabilities, are statistically significant. The random intercepts for the region and the urban/rural divide are also statistically significant, suggesting that the regional effects of disruptions play an important role in household recovery. The findings from this study provide insights on the impact of infrastructure disruptions on household recovery and the importance of multilevel modeling, supporting the case for further, more comprehensive interdisciplinary studies to reduce the power outage-related exposure of vulnerable populations.

Factors Influencing the Threats for Urban Energy Networks: The Inhabitants’ Point of View

Our paper focuses on eliciting the factors that constitute threats and dangers for urban energy networks, information networks, and energy grids in the cities. Moreover, we attempt to determine how these threats are perceived by the inhabitants of those cities. Urban energy networks tend to play an increasing role in achieving energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in large urban centers. Even though they do not necessarily correspond to reality, public opinions can substantially influence the adoption of relevant technologies in populous urban locations. We use the public opinion representative survey data from the Czech Republic (a sample of 1023 respondents) in order to show how people perceive the dangers and threats for urban energy networks from such events as: (i) Extensive and long-term power outage; (ii) service disruption of the Internet, mobile networks or telephone landlines; (iii) cyber-attacks, and (iv) the technological dependence of the state on multinational technological companies. Our results demonstrate that people who live in small rural settlements and medium-sized cities tend to be more afraid of the threats and dangers from urban energy networks such as electricity and Internet outages, compared to people residing in some smaller towns. As far as there would always be a fear of the new technologies and their vulnerabilities, the local governments, mass media, and Internet resources alike should pay more attention to providing the relevant and updated information on the threats to urban energy networks for the general public.

Characteristics of mobile phone access and usage in rural and urban Guatemala: assessing feasibility of text message reminders to increase childhood immunizations.

Despite efforts to promote vaccination in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), over 20 million infants remain under-immunized and at risk for unnecessary morbidity and mortality. Mobile health technologies, such as Short Message Service (SMS) texts, have tremendous and untapped potential for disease management. Patient reminder systems are an important mechanism for improving childhood vaccination coverage and can be easily adapted to SMS platforms. However, current research lacks an understanding of the barriers and facilitators to mHealth program design, implementation, and scale in LMICs. We analyzed survey data collected March-November 2016 at the enrollment visit from a randomized controlled trial conducted at public health clinics in urban and rural Guatemala. Participants included eligible infants 6 weeks to 6 months of age receiving the first dose of the primary immunization series. At least one parent needed to own a mobile phone and be capable of deciphering SMS. Chi-square or Fisher's exact and Student's t-test were used to assess significance levels in demographic differences to describe factors that contribute to the feasibility of using an SMS-based vaccination reminder system. Of 1,088 families approached for enrollment, 871 were eligible and 720 (82.7%) participated with equal numbers of urban and rural children enrolled; 54 parents did not own a mobile phone with SMS capability and three parents could not use SMS. There was no significant difference between urban and rural maternal mobile phone ownership (94.4% vs. 93.3%, P=0.53), but more urban fathers owned mobile phones (72.8% vs. 47.1%, P<0.0001) and, overall, more mothers compared to fathers owned mobile phones (93.9% vs. 61.1%, P<0.0001). Most families (90.4%) chose to have reminders sent to the mother. Urban participants reported more mobile phones present in the home (P<0.0001), but rural participants reported more telephone landlines (34.7% vs. 15.6%, P<0.0001). Most participants reported a daily average of ≤5 telephone calls made (87.4%), ≤10 texts sent (91.0%), and ≤10 texts received (89.9%), with urban families reporting greater telephone usage (P=0.006, P<0.001, and P<0.001 respectively). Parents preferred to make calls over sending texts (74.7% vs. 25.3%, P<0.0001), with more urban families preferring text messaging (31.9% vs. 18.6%, P<0.0001). Our study results provide important insight into mobile phone access, usage, and preferences for voice and text communication across rural and urban populations of an LMIC that can be used to inform future mHealth interventions. Our findings suggest that offering a combination of more traditional communication methods with newer, modern technologies may be more effective at reminding families about vaccination visits, particularly for our rural population, and that targeting mothers for mobile phone interventions may provide the greatest benefits. Overall, our study suggests that using SMS reminders in LMICs can be a feasible tool for public health interventions.

Correlates of alcohol consumption on heavy drinking occasions of young risky drinkers: event versus personal characteristics

Risky single-occasion drinking (RSOD) by young people is a serious public health issue, yet little is known about the specific circumstances of risky drinking occasions. This study examined the independent effects of event- and individual-specific variables on RSOD. Longitudinal cohort study measuring self-reported RSOD and event- and individual-specific variables across two drinking occasions approximately 1 year apart. Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. A sample of 710 young risky drinkers aged between 18 and 25years and defined as engaging in risky drinking practices (males: consumed alcohol in excess of 10 Australian Standard Drinks (ASD: 10g ethanol) in a single occasion in the previous year; females: consumed alcohol in excess of seven ASD for females in a single occasion in the previous year). Random digit-dial telephone landline survey of the most recent heavy drinking occasion and socio-demographic variables. The primary outcome was the log of the total drinks consumed in the most recent heavy drinking occasion. Event-specific (e.g. number of drinking locations) and time-varying (e.g. weekly income) and time-invariant (e.g. sex) individual-specific variables were examined as correlates of total drinks consumed. Changes in event-specific characteristics including the length of the drinking occasion (Likelihood Ratio χ2 (2)=24.4, P<0.001), the number of drinking locations (Wald χ2(1) =7.6, P=0.006) and the number of different drink types (Wald χ2(1) =13.6, P<0.001) were associated with increases in total drinks consumed, after adjustment for time-invariant and time-variant individual-specific variables such as gender, income level and weekly consumption. Few other effects were noted. Event-specific characteristics are important predictors of the number of drinks consumed during risky single occasion drinking (RSOD) and illustrate the importance of event contexts when considering interventions targeting RSOD. The total number of drinks consumed in a RSOD session appears to rise independently with the duration of the drinking event, the number of drinking locations and the number of different types of beverage consumed.

Injuries caused by pets in Asian urban households: a cross-sectional telephone survey

ObjectivesLittle is known about pet-related injuries in Asian populations. This study primarily aimed to investigate the incidence rate of pet-related household injuries in Hong Kong, an urban Chinese setting.SettingCantonese-speaking non-institutionalised...

Development of the malay digit triplet test via headphones and telephones as a national hearing screening tool in Malaysia

Introduction: This study aimed to develop a self-administered hearing screening test using digit triplets in Malay (MDTT) to be used as a national hearing screening tool via internet and telephone landlines in Malaysia. Methods: Recordings of disyllabic Malay digits by a female Malay native speaker were used together with a speech shaped stationary noise (TSN). The test stimuli were normalized using responses from twenty normal hearing native Malay speakers. The data were used to produce eight equivalent test lists. An additional twenty normal hearing native Malay speakers were recruited to test the lists equivalency. Forty six listeners with varying levels of hearing were recruited to validate the tests. ROC analysis was done to identify the pass and refer cut-off limits. Results: No statistical differences were found between lists for both test conditions. The evaluation in fixed SNRs resulted in a mean speech reception threshold (SRT) of -11.3 ± 0.34 dB SNR for headphone and -10.24 ± 0.1 dB SNR for telephone applications. A significant main effect of type of transducer was observed in both normal and hearing impaired groups. The cut off for refer, sensitivity and specificity for the tests using telephones are (-5.8dB, 80.8%, 95%) and headphones (-9.8dB, 80.8%, 100%). Conclusions: The MDTT was successfully developed and the normative values are comparable to other versions of the digit triplet tests. The MDTT showed high sensitivity and specificity and can be made available to any Malay speaking public via telephone and internet.

Genres of science news in the Nigerian press

The decade 2001 to 2009 was one of contrasting scientific achievements in Nigeria: while the public responded positively to technology - with telephone penetration increasing from less than 900 000 telephone landlines and a teledensity of 0.73 in 2001 to 111 million Global System for Mobile Telephony (GSM) lines and a teledensity of 63.1 in 2010 - the use of the oral polio vaccine was banned in some parts of the country following a revolt premised on a conspiracy against Muslims. The revolt, which resulted in about 5000 new cases, spread the disease to hitherto free neighbouring countries and created an image of a country that is pro-religion and anti-science. This commentary is about the place of science in Nigerian newspapers as a proxy for public opinion. Newspapers are a functional part of the public sphere: a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. The idea of a public sphere is that of a body of private persons assembled to discuss matters of public concern or common interest and newspapers, radio, television, the Internet, etc. are the media required for transmitting information and influencing those who receive it. The media's role in transmitting information, argues McQuail, makes it an instrument of social power. Being an instrument of social power does not, however, make the media our only source of social reality, but it plays a central role in the thinking society dynamic. The definition of social reality, of facts, norms, values and expectations,6 is, however, contextual; and as journalists are themselves part of society, how they practise their profession will be largely influenced by their culture, value systems and corporate practices. Livingstone, however, argues that audiences are heterogeneous in their interpretation and, at times, even resistant to the dominant meanings encoded in news.

HRS Expert Consensus Statement on remote interrogation and monitoring for cardiovascular implantable electronic devices.

DavidSlotwiner,MD, FHRS, FACC(Chair),Niraj Varma,MD,PhD, FRCP(Co-chair), JosephG.Akar,MD,PhD, George Annas, JD, MPH, Marianne Beardsall, MN/NP, CCDS, FHRS, Richard I. Fogel, MD, FHRS, Nestor O. Galizio, MD, Taya V. Glotzer, MD, FHRS, FACC, Robin A. Leahy, RN, BSN, CCDS, FHRS, Charles J. Love, MD, CCDS, FHRS, FACC, FAHA, Rhondalyn C. McLean, MD, Suneet Mittal, MD, FHRS, Loredana Morichelli, RN, MSN, Kristen K. Patton, MD, Merritt H. Raitt, MD, FHRS, Renato Pietro Ricci, MD, John Rickard, MD, MPH, Mark H. Schoenfeld, MD, CCDS, FHRS, FACC, FAHA, Gerald A. Serwer, MD, FHRS, FACC, Julie Shea, MS, RNCS, FHRS, CCDS, Paul Varosy, MD, FHRS, FACC, FAHA, Atul Verma, MD, FHRS, FRCPC, Cheuk-Man Yu, MD, FACC, FRCP, FRACP From the Hofstra School of Medicine, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, New Hyde Park, New York, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, Southlake Regional Health Centre, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, St. Vincent Medical Group, Indianapolis, Indiana, Favaloro Foundation University Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, New Jersey, Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, Carolinas HealthCare System, Charlotte, North Carolina, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York City, New York, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Arrhythmia Institute at Valley Hospital, New York, New York, Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, San Filippo Neri Hospital, Rome, Italy, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, VA Portland Health Care System, Oregon Health & Science University, Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Portland, Oregon, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, Yale University School of Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital Saint Raphael Campus, New Haven, Connecticut, University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center, University of Michigan Health Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, and Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

A GPS-aided survey for assessing trip reporting accuracy and travel of students without telephone land lines

A geo-positioning satellite (GPS)-based survey, using a web-based prompted recall tool, was conducted on a sample of 94 students at the University of Toronto from November 2008 to April 2009. The sample included students with and without telephone land lines, allowing for a statistical comparison of demographic and travel behaviour attributes. The same subjects simultaneously completed a traditional trip reporting survey, modelled on the household travel survey in Toronto, allowing for a comparison between the travel behaviour information obtained from the GPS and that reported by the participants in the traditional survey. Students with a land line are more likely to live in houses, with parents, and to live in suburban areas than students without a land line. They also make fewer trips in total, fewer discretionary trips, more transit and auto trips and fewer active trips than students without a land line. By comparing questionnaire-based data and GPS data, we found that most participants reported in the questionnaire either the same number of GPS-based trips or fewer. On average, the GPS survey captured 1.29 more daily trips per participant than the corresponding trips reported in the questionnaire.

The Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory

The pilot coastal observatory in the eastern Irish Sea integrates (near) real-time measurements with coupled models in a pre-operational coastal prediction system. The aim is to develop the underpinning science for marine management, focusing on the impacts of storms, eutrophication and the relative importance of events viz-a-viz the mean. Real time current measurements are obtained from a seabed mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler; deployment started in August 2002, via acoustic modems and the Orbcomm satellite e-mail system, and from a shore based HF radar via telephone landlines. There are also real time measurements from a surface buoy and a directional wave buoy and from an instrumented ferry, all via Orbcomm. The measurements are integrated with a suite of nested 3-dimensional hydrodynamic and ecological models run daily, focusing on the Observatory area by covering the ocean/shelf of northwest Europe (at 12 km resolution), the Irish Sea (at 1.8 km) and Liverpool Bay (at 200-300m resolution). All measurements and model outputs are displayed on the Web-site (http://coastobs.pol.ac.uk).

Sheltered in cyberspace? Computer use among the unsheltered ‘street’ homeless

Although physical health, mental health, and substance use problems are disproportionately high among the homeless, those with greater access to their social support systems report better outcomes than others. Communication with loved ones can be challenging for this population because of lack of access to telephone landlines. Computer technology may be an alternative medium for this population to access their social support systems, which, in turn, could lead toward better health outcomes. This exploratory study examined the computer use of 100 unsheltered homeless men and women in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Participants were interviewed using the Homeless Supplement to the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, a technology use module created for this investigation, and the substance use and psychiatric sections of the Addiction Severity Index. Almost half (47%) of the sample reported computer use in the past 30 days (averaging 17.67 h and 30 days). Participants used computers to maintain their sense of social connectedness, for business purposes (job and housing searches), and for leisure. Computer technology could be used to disseminate information, prevent, screen, and treat many conditions, and collect data with this difficult-to-reach population. This technology has the potential to increase access to much needed services at a relatively low cost.

Household mobility and cellular telephone demand

Cellular telephones are mobile, and this mobility is one of the key factors influencing the demand for cellular service. This article examines the household demand for cellular telephone and finds that the numbers of vehicles and drivers in the household strongly influence the demand for cellular telephones. Income has the strongest effect. We find some evidence that telephone landlines and cellular telephone service are substitutes. The results are based on data from the 2001 National Household Travel Survey conducted the US Department of Transportation.

Global Diffusion of the Internet VII- Teledensity Growth Strategies for Latin America: The Case of Colombia and Ecuador

The Internet in developing countries grew substantially in recent years. Given the large income disparities and low telephone penetration. rates in most Latin American countries, only about 4% of the region’s population can access the Internet. The International Telecommunication Union reports that teledensity (the number of telephone land-lines per 100 people) in Latin America is currently at about 10.8%. Prior research identified specific factors that hinder growth of teledensity in developing countries and specific strategies used to overcome such limitations. This study investigates Latin American telecommunication stakeholders’ perspective of how these strategies can be used to address teledensity growth in the region. Survey participants (Latin America’s telecommunications stakeholders) analyzed the strategies critically and modified, enhanced, or added new insights. Using appropriate statistical procedures we examined the telecommunications stakeholders’ perceptions to find potential solutions the low teledensity problem. Qualitative comments to support the stakeholders’ responses are reported, together with future research implications.

Ultra-Short Wave Radio Link across Bristol Channel

ONE of the results of the study of the mode of propagation of ultra-short electric waves has been to show that for wave-lengths of from one to about nine metres, the effective range is limited to the horizon or the optical distance for ordinary vision. While this property prevents the application of such waves for long distance radio communication, it has for some time been recognised that this range of wave-lengths would be very suitable for providing a radio link in the ordinary telephone system. This application is of particular advantage in spanning short stretches of water, such as a channel or river estuary, where the present alternative is a submarine cable or a land-line following a circuitous route. According to recent reports in the Times and the Wireless World, tho Post Office Engineering Department has been investigating the possibilities of this application for some time past, and experiments have now successfully terminated in the setting-up of a radio link across the Bristol Channel. This link, which is twelve miles long, connects up the ordinary telephone land-lines at Lavernock, near Cardiff, on one side, with those at Hutton, near Weston-super-Maro, on the other. The wave-length employed is about five metres, and the transmitters and receivers are placed in separate huts at each site. The aerial system consists of horizontal dipoles connected to the terminal apparatus by special transmission lines, and the whole equipment has been designed to work unattended, apart from periodic maintenance operations.