Telephone operator

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A telephone operator at work on a private switchboard in 1975

A telephone operator is either

• a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls (called reversed-charge calls in the UK), calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain international calls which cannot be dialed directly.
• a telephone company offering telephone services to subscribers. For example, users of a mobile phone will register with a mobile phone operator to receive GSM services.

With the development of computerized telephone dialing systems, many telephone calls which previously required a live operator can be placed automatically by the calling party without additional human intervention. Before the advent of automatic exchanges, an operator's assistance was required for anything other than calling telephones across a shared party line. Callers spoke to an operator at a Central Office who then connected a cord to the proper circuit in order to complete the call. Being in complete control of the call, the operator was in a position to listen to private conversations. Direct Dial (DDD) systems were developed in the 1920s to reduce labor costs as usage increased, and to ensure privacy to the customer. As phone systems became more sophisticated, this sort of direct intervention by the telephone operator was needed less and less.

As well as those employed by the public networks, operators are also needed at private branch exchanges to answer incoming calls and connect them to the correct extension. The term "telephone operator" is used broadly, and can entail a range of responsibilities, from performing wake-up calls from a Hotel Switchboard, to responding to medical emergencies, overhead paging, and disaster response coordination in medical facilities. Well trained operators with a variety of skills usually command the best positions in this field which generally falls under the umbrella of telecommunications.

In January 1878 George Willard Croy became the world's first telephone operator when he started working for the Boston Telephone Despatch company.^[1]

Emma Nutt became the world's first female telephone operator on 1st September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Despatch company, because the attitude and behaviour of boys was unacceptable ^[2] Emma was hired by Alexander Graham Bell,^[1] and reportedly, could remember every number in the telephone directory of the New England Telephone Company.^[1]

See also

• Telephone switchboard
• Switchboard operator
• Directory assistance

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Telephone operators

• Early telephone operators