The article "Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna" in the periodical "Świat", 1927, no. 44, pp. 22-24 (public domain, reprinted from the Library of the Univeristy of the Catholic University of Lublin) describing the history and activities of the company in Poland was illustrated with a photograph of the building of the Telephone Exchange in Lviv. The building, designed by architect Eugeniusz Czerwiński, was built in the 1920s.

A modernised reading of the text

Polish Joint Stock Telephone Company.

After the expiry of the concession of the Swedish Cedergren Society for telephones in Warsaw, the Polish Government was actually faced with two alternatives: either to extend the concession to the Cedergren Society, or to buy the facilities of the telephone network in Warsaw out of the Society's hands and take them under its own management. The Government did not consider the first solution advisable, while it did not want to allocate significant funds for the second. In the end, the matter was resolved in such a way that the Government, together with the former owners of the Warsaw network, created a new joint-stock company for 25 years for the construction and operation of telephone networks in Warsaw, Lviv, Lviv, the Sosnowiec Basin, the Borysław Basin, Lublin and Białystok. The Government contributed as shares to the company the last 6 of these telephone networks, which were evaluated and for which the Government received 3/7 shares.

The same number of shares, having paid cash for them, were received by Swedish entrepreneurs, and a public subscription was announced for the remaining 1/7 shares. The joint stock company thus organised bought the Warsaw telephone network from the former concessionaire, paying for it with 7 per cent bonds. After 25 years of the concession, now less than 20 years, the Government takes over all the networks after paying off at par the shares held in private hands, and thus the vast telephone network will pass into public ownership.

The authorities of the company are headed by a board of directors, consisting of 7 members and 5 deputies, of which 3 members and 2 deputies are delegated by the Government, and 4 members and 3 deputies elected by the private shareholders. Of the above 12 persons, 9 are of Polish nationality and 3 are of Swedish nationality. The audit committee consists of 3 members and 2 deputies appointed by the Government and 2 members and 1 deputy elected by the private shareholders - all of Polish nationality.

The company employs around 1,600 people on its networks, including managers, clerks, telephonists and labourers. All these personnel are exclusively of Polish nationality.

The development of P.A.S.T. proceeded at a rapid pace and the growth of subscribers was considerable. On receiving the licence on 1 July 1922, the Warsaw network had 26,746 subscribers, Lodz 1,725, Lviv 962 and the other 4 networks 1,745 subscribers. As of 1 October this year, the number of subscribers in Warsaw is 34,339, in Lviv - 6,547, in Lviv - 4,716 and in other cities - 4,810.

During its 5 years of activity, the company not only had to expand its networks and telephone exchanges, but in order to properly organise its telephone service it had to build a whole series of houses, such as a 4-storey annexe in Warsaw, its own buildings in Lviv, Boryslaw, Lublin, and currently a 5-storey building is being brought under the roof in Lodz, where the installation of the exchange of the latest automatic system will be started next year.

The first two years were unsuccessful for the company as they gave a deficit, 1924 brought a 3% dividend and 1925 and 1926 a 5% dividend. This dividend was not received by the shareholders in cash, but in new issue shares, i.e. the dividend was used to increase the share capital in order to further enlarge the network and carry out investment works, which employ, as mentioned above, technical and labour personnel exclusively national.

P.A.S.T. makes every effort to build technically excellent telephone networks, applying the latest improvements introduced abroad and any improvements gained by the experience of its own specialists, endeavours to give telephones convenient to use, first-class telephone service and, above all, strives for the lowest possible tariffs. The results achieved by P.A.S.T. are duly appreciated by the professional spheres abroad, among which the company enjoys a distinguished reputation. Every foreigner coming to our capital pays attention to the efficiency of the telephones in Warsaw and speaks of their functioning with great appreciation. Unfortunately, the company's efforts are not properly appreciated in the local society, which is what the company cares about the most, thanks to the agitation developed for a long time by a group of people led by the former director of the former cabaret "Maxime", who try to disgrace the company by all means. It is to be regretted that similar demagogic and destructive activity has found an open and wide field in the daily press.

The introduction of a telephone charging system based on call counting was used as a pretext. This system has long found application in almost all cultural countries of the world, and those few countries that have not yet applied it (e.g. Italy) are developing a transition to this system. One of the first countries to introduce this system was the United States of A.P., where the system has by no means stopped the development of telephones, and the United States today occupies a leading position worldwide in the spread of telephones.

Meter charge systems are plentiful, and to give some idea we quote below a comparison table for different cities. You can see from the table below, however, how low the telephone charges are in our country in comparison with many other countries or with our close neighbour Gdansk. The table below probably convinces sufficiently how deceitful are the maliciously spread messages that our telephone is expensive, that the company draws crazy profits and similar nonsense, good for gullible, uncritical and incompetent people.

A mere comparison of our tariffs with those of foreign countries gives the answer that the Warsaw tariffs are absolutely much lower, but it does not give a relative comparison, since the zloty franc, for example, in New York is much less than in Warsaw. As an indication in this direction as well, here is a comparison of prices of various public services in Berlin and in Warsaw and Lodz: as can be seen from the above comparison, all Berlin prices in fenges are lower than our prices in pennies (telegrams equally), and mostly much lower, with the exception of telephone charges, which are much more in Berlin than in Lodz.

To what end and in whose interest is the poison of discontent, distrust and scepticism being sown in our country, even in matters which are very successful and better than in foreign countries, those who do this probably know. P.A.S.T. does its job according to its conscience and its merchant ethics.