Rural Telephone Service

the telephone service supplied to subscribers in rural localities. Rural telephone service is provided by means of an autonomous telephone network set up within an individual rural raion. Such a network consists of a number of lines radiating out of a single exchange, which in turn is connected with a central exchange. This configuration is economically suited for rural areas because of the low capacity of rural telephone exchanges, which usually have automatic means for making connections but are sometimes manually operated; it is also suited because of the long distances between rural exchanges.