Italy Post Offices and Telegraphs
Administrative order . – The postal-telegraphic administration depends on the state which manages it through a special general directorate at the Ministry of Communications. Postal and telegraphic services within each province depend directly on the provincial directorates. The R. decree 18 June 1931, n. 1827, which went into effect in March 1932, established departmental post offices and telegraphs with jurisdiction over several provinces. The provision began to be applied with the establishment of the Cagliari management with jurisdiction over Sardinia.
Until June 31, 1925, telephone services depended on the state. Starting from 1 July 1925 Italy has been divided into five zones (1. Piedmont and Lombardy; 2. Tre Venezie, Fiume and Zara; 3. Emilia, Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo and Molise; 4. Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio, Sardinia; 5. Southern Italy and Sicily) and the urban and long-distance telephone services included in each area were sold to as many private companies (respectively: 1. “Piedmontese and Lombard interregional telephone company”, STIPEL; 2. “Telephone company of Tre Venezie “, TELVE; 3.” Middle-eastern Italy telephone company, TIMO; 4. “Tyrrhenian telephone company”, TETI; 5. “Telephone company”, SET). In June 1925 the State Company for telephone services was created – under the administrative dependence of the Director General of the Post and Telegraphs –
Postal services . – As of June 30, 1932 there were 11,293 postal establishments in Italy. During the financial year 1931-32, the movement of postal correspondence reached the figure of 2,309,016,000 units, of which 2,201,195,000 were paid and 107,821,000 were exempt from tax. During the same fiscal year, the general movement of parcels was 14,415,050 parcels. Packages sent at a reduced rate containing books totaled 1,197,787. The parcels subject to patent rights, transported by concessionaires, were 4,424,330.
Cash services . – During the financial year 1931-32, a total of 24,233,587 postal orders (3,816,428 for service; 201,102 international) were issued for a value of L. 13,515,134,000 (11,555,640,000 for service orders; 71,468,000 for international money orders). The postal current account service carried out 12,745,000 transactions during the financial year 1931-32 (3,092,816 during 1924-25) on behalf of 91,936 account holders (9312 during 1924-1925) who have a total credit of lire 477.413.000 (43.435.676 during 1924-25). The credit of the postal savings books as of June 30, 1925 was Lire 10,003,000,000, and as of June 30, 1932, Lire 8,465,000,000. The amount invested in interest-bearing postal bonds was L.163,000,000 as of June 30, 1925 and rose to 6,956,000,000 as of June 30, 1932.
Ordinary telegraph services . – Postal establishments with telegraphic service amounted overall (as of June 30, 1932) to 10,375. These offices were equipped on the same date with 12,989 Morse apparatuses, 923 Hughes apparatuses, 280 Baudot apparatuses, and numerous other apparatuses. The development of the lines of the ordinary telegraph network included km. 65,308 with a total of km. 541.711 of wires (288.174 owned by the telegraph administration). The length of submarine cables with telegraph wires was km. 6809 with 7010 km. of threads. During the financial year 1931-32, about 26,684,185 private telegrams were accepted, while the total traffic was 142,793,046 telegrams.
Italcable company services . – The Italcable company manages the Anzio-Malaga-Las Palmas-S transatlantic cable. Vincent-Fernando of Noronha-Rio de Janeiro-Montevideo (about 13,000 km in length) activated by him on 12 October 1925. He also activated: 1. the Anzio-Malaga-Azores cable (which connects to the Azores-New York of the American company Western Union); 2. the Anzio-Barcelona and Barcelona-Malaga cable (laid in 1927 as a doubling of the pre-existing Anzio-Malaga cable line required by traffic requirements); 3. the Malaga-Lisbon cable; 4. the Cagliari-Palermo cable (activated in 1929); 5. the Lisbon-La Panne cable (Belgium) activated in 1930. During the sixth year of operation (1930-1931) of the South American cable, telegraphic traffic was 2,291,515 words per unit.
Radiocommunications. – Italy was one of the first nations to create radio communication stations: since 1910 Somalia and Eritrea were radio connected through the stations of Massawa and Mogadishu while the communications of the colonies with Italy were ensured by the station ultra-powerful from Coltano. Later, with the gradual improvement of radioelectric systems, radiotelegraphy entered into strong competition with wire connections between fixed points and in particular with submarine cables. Currently (1933) there are three major radio stations in Italy: 1. radiocommunication center of the R. Marina di Roma-S. Paolo, created during the war and used today mainly for connections with the colonies; 2. the center of Rome-Torrenova, managed by the “Italo Radio Company” (established in 1923-24), used for European and transcontinental connections and provided (since 1932) with systems for the transoceanic radio service that allow you to speak from every city in Italy with any correspondent of the Argentine or Brazilian telephone network, 3. Coltano-Radio center, managed by “Società Italo Radio”, consisting of two stations (ie the Coltano transmitter and the Nodica duplex receiver) and exclusively used (from 1929-30) for radio-maritime communications with ships sailing in every sea; the Coltano center is also equipped with radiotelephone equipment that allows passengers on some of the largest ocean liners (including national consisting of two stations (ie the Coltano transmitter and the Nodica duplex receiver) and exclusively used (from 1929-30) for radio-maritime communications with ships sailing in every sea; the Coltano center is also equipped with radiotelephone equipment that allows passengers on some of the largest ocean liners (including national consisting of two stations (ie the Coltano transmitter and the Nodica duplex receiver) and exclusively used (from 1929-30) for radio-maritime communications with ships sailing in every sea; the Coltano center is also equipped with radiotelephone equipment that allows passengers on some of the largest ocean liners (including national Conte Rosso , Conte Verde , Rex and Conte di Savoia ) to exchange conversations during navigation with the subscribers of the Italian telephone networks and the various European countries.
In addition to these three large stations there are numerous coastal stations (Genoa, La Maddalena, Cagliari, Naples, Messina, Trapani, Vittoria, Brindisi, Ancona, Venice, Fiume and Zara) with service limited only to communications of a close nature or of port interest. and vigilance for distress signals. The coastal stations of Tripoli, Bengasi, Derna, Tobruch, Rodi, Lero, Massawa, Assab, Alula, Obbia, Mogadishu, Brava, Merca, Chisimaio are destined for a similar service in the colonies.
In Italy there is also a complete radioelectric organization serving the aeronautics (radiocommunication services, radiogonometric and radio beacon services concerning flight safety). Generally, radioelectric stations used for air services are located in the main commercial airports or near them. There are currently 45 ground air stations in the kingdom and islands, and several of them also in the colonies.
During the financial year 1931-32, the radiotelegraph service between fixed points transmitted 981,811 telegrams with 17,901,984 words. The general total of the words transmitted on board the ships in navigation by the coastal stations (including those of the concessionary companies) and received on board was about one and a half million.
