In an archival report from October 1976, a telephone-service engineer in Hyderabad linked frequent line failures to aluminium conductors and urged a return to copper.
The Hindu’s archive revisits a discussion of telephone service in India half a century ago. In a report dated October 6, 1976, K.S. Krishnamurthy Rao, a sub-divisional telephone officer in Hyderabad, said the widespread use of aluminium conductors was causing frequent disconnection faults that left telephone lines dead.
Rao said an expert committee formed by India’s Posts and Telegraphs Department had discouraged aluminium conductors and recommended a return to copper. He presented his paper at a seminar on “Improved Service to Telephone Users,” organised by the Junior Engineers (Telcom) Association.
The seminar’s chair, Professor Alladi Prabhakar of Osmania University’s Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, called for an integrated telecommunications network capable of carrying not only voice calls but also facsimile, video and other media. The archival report also noted that the department should not neglect maintenance as it expanded telephone services.