Operator assistance

Common card · No. 310167

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...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Navy photo, CC0