Operator assistance refers to service provided by a telephone operator to the calling party of a telephone call. This included telephone calls made from pay phones, calls placed station-to-station, person-to-person, or collect, third-number calls, calls billed to credit cards, and certain international calls which could not be dialed directly. Operators could also assist with diagnosing technical difficulties, verifying whether a line was busy (busy line verification, or BLV), or left off the hook, or breaking in on a live call to ask the caller to clear the line for an incoming call (busy line interruption, or BLI). The latter service was often utilized by emergency police. In addition, operators were often a first point of contact for the elderly wanting information on the current date and time. Before the advent of emergency telephone numbers, operators identified and connected emergency calls to the correct emergency services. Directory assistance was also part of the operator's job. In the early days of telephones all calls were connected by an operator. Later, local calls could typically be dialed directly, but long-distance and international calls had to be connected by an operator, often subject to a minimum charge, typically for three minutes. Eventually it became possible to direct-dial all calls, but operator assistance continued to be available, often at higher cost, for all calls; in the US Bell System an operator-assisted call carried a 50% premium for the first three minutes. Operator-assisted calls were initially handled at telephone switchboards which were subsequently replaced with computer assisted systems such as Traffic Service Position System (TSPS) consoles beginning in the late 1960s, which automated many aspects of call setup while still requiring operator involvement for billing verification, announcements, and customer interaction.
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Station-to-station
A station-to-station call, also known as station paid or station collect depending on the billing arrangement, was an operator-assisted call in which the calling party (CLG) agreed to talk to whoever answered the telephone. Timing and billing began as soon as the call was answered, regardless of who picked up.
Person-to-person A person-to-person call, also known as person paid or person collect depending on the billing arrangement, was a higher priced operator-assisted call in which the calling party required to speak to a specific named party and not simply to anyone who answered. The caller was only charged for the call from the moment the requested party was reached, and was not charged at all if the party was unreachable. An operator would typically announce the call to the answering party with the phrase "(Called Party), please. Long Distance is calling." Bell System operating practice set a holding interval — the maximum time an operator would wait for the called party to come to the telephone or while a collect-call acceptance was sought. This interval was originally three minutes but was reduced to one minute by 1973 to improve network efficiency; operators could wait longer if either party requested it. At the one-minute mark on a person-to-person call the prescribed phrase was: "I am sorry, I have not yet reached [called party]. Will you speak to anyone else, or shall I leave word?" On a station collect call, if no one had accepted or refused the charge after one minute, the operator was required to release the circuit, as the connection could not be held indefinitely on a station call.
Messenger call When waiting for the person would exceed the holding interval, a messenger call was used. In areas with minimal telephone service such as smaller towns (and before the ubiquity of mobile phones), a call was made to a normally staffed central location with a telephone, such as a corner store, public call office, post office, or other public business, and a messenger would be hired to go to the recipient's location to advise him or her to come to the phoned location at a designated time to receive a phone call. The calling party would be advised to call the operator back at the arranged time to complete the call.
Sequence call Prior to direct distance dialing, placing a long distance call often required an operator to take down the call information and call the customer back when ready. Looking up routing codes and preparing billing tickets often took several minutes or more depending on circuit and staff availability. Customers requesting two or more simultaneous calls from the same telephone were offered the option of a sequence call, handled by a dedicated sequence operator. A list of numbers to be called would be shared with the operator in advance, giving the operator time to look up routing codes and prepare billing tickets for all calls at once, significantly speeding overall call completion for the customer compared to handling each request separately. The calling party would hook flash to indicate the desire to move to the next call in the list.
Emergency Before the establishment of uniform emergency telephone numbers, operators were responsible for connecting emergency calls to police, fire, ambulance, hospitals, civil defense, and military authorities. Operators were trained to advance emergency calls without delay, not stopping to ask questions unless the caller specifically requested that the operator make the report; in that case the operator obtained the calling number, location, and nature of the emergency and said "I will report it for you." On calls from coin telephones, operators did not delay an emergency call to collect a deposit; on local coin calls to police, sheriff, and fire departments, no charge was assessed at all. If the called emergency number was busy, the operator offered to interrupt the conversation. In localities where no ambulance service was available, operators were instructed to connect to the police department instead.
Inward
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