In all the above cases except Hull, the National Telephone Company had agreed to forego the granting of special favours to subscribers, had established intercommunication, and their licence was accordingly extended in those places to the dates of termination of the corporation licences. In Glasgow the National Telephone Company made several applications for permission to lay underground wires, but the corporation refused the concession on any terms. In spite of this advantage and the inability of the company to meet the low unlimited user rate of the corporation telephones on account of agreements with subscribers in other towns, the corporation found it advisable to sell its plant to the Post Office in 1906 for £305,000 at a capital loss of between £12,000 and £15,000. Brighton followed suit a little later for the sum of £49,000, at a loss of £2450. Swansea experienced considerable difficulty in borrowing money to extend its system on account of the refusal of the Local Government Board to grant the necessary borrowing powers. The Post Office offered £22,000 for a plant which had cost £27,173. This offer was refused by the corporation, and an agreement was concluded with the National Telephone Company in 1907 for the sale of the plant at a price sufficient to repay the whole capital. Offers were also made to Hull and Portsmouth by the department, but were refused, as they were not sufficiently high to cover expenditure.[836] [836] _Parl. Deb._, 4th ser., lxxxii, coll. 168-186; cliv, coll. 1067-68; clxiv, col. 87; London _Times_, 1906, July 6, p. 10; 1907, Jan. 3, p. 8; Feb. 9, p. 3; Mar. 22, p. 4. As a rule the local authorities offered an initial flat rate lower than that paid by the company's subscribers in competing centres, but most of the other rates of the corporation authorities were somewhat higher. The service offered by the public telephones was not so satisfactory as had been hoped, and the more numerous connections open to the company's subscribers formed an initial advantage which it was difficult to overcome. On the other hand, the corporations often had the advantage of underground connections which were denied to the company, but the relatively small number of the subscribers of the corporation telephones, the high cost of underground connections, the clumsy service offered in many cases, and the ability of the company to offer lower rates in competitive areas proved too much for most of the corporations which were granted licences.[837] [837] _Rep. Com._, 1905, vii, 271, pp. 10, 76, 79, 233-235.