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CHiNA Info-File : The 'Inward' Operators
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Well folks here is another file in the educational series of our releases.
Look for more files from The Egghead Dude, Mr. X and The Viper in the next
couple of weeks.
The Telephone concept of Inward is one of the things that modernization of the
network has essentially ended.
Back in the days when lots of calls were operator handled, the Inward operator
was the operator who answered jacks labelled "Inward" on her position. In
some towns, this might be the same operator as the "Coin Collect" operator,
who would answer jacks labelled "Coin Collect" or as any other operator.
In larger towns, there would be switchboards explicitly allocated to these
specialized services. In smaller towns, these services would appear on some
or all of the positions occupied by other operators. The "numbers" route for
non-dialable ring-downs would also have its own set of jacks.
But now that modernization has arrived, and operators sit at computer consoles
rather than cord boards and are located hundreds of miles from the areas they
serve, the whole concept has essentially gone away.
For example, New England Telephone serves Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont,
New Hampshire, and Maine with operators connected to switching systems in
Springfield MA, Cambridge MA, Framingham MA, Hanover MA, Lawrence MA, and
Manchester NH. Most operators are not near these switching systems. They are
in Fall River MA, Brockton MA, Quincy MA, Keene MA, Newburyport MA, Springfield
MA, Marlboro MA, E. Providence RI, Portland ME, Dover NH, Keene NH, and
Brattleboro VT.
The long distance carriers are also drastically reducing the ubiquity of
operators. In testimony before the Mass DPU, a competitor of AT&T claimed that
AT&T planned to concentrate its operators in five nationwide operating centers.
The operators don't really have any special sort of connection to the central
offices except when they are performing coin collect functions or busy number
verification. Some reasons a call might go through when placed through an
operator when it didn't work when dialled are:
1. You dialled via one carrier and then used an operator from a
different carrier.
2. Your local central office has a problem translating the area
code or area code and first three digits.
3. Your local operating company has a translation problem in its
access tandem.
4. The long distance carrier has a translation problem in the
toll switching machine serving your central office, but when
you're connected to an operator, you end up using a different
toll switching machine for the call.
Basically, the only reason the operator gets through when you don't is that
the call may be placed through different switching systems along the way.
Inward almost doesn't exist any more. Except when calling an area served by
one of a very few independent telcos with their own operators, AT&T operators
who call Inward are going to reach another AT&T operator. In no case will an
AT&T operator calling Inward reach a local Baby Bell operator. Only in the
case of the completing calls to non-diallable points (and there are thousands
of them left, especially in California), will an AT&T operator end up on a
Baby Bell toll board, but this isn't Inward. The Inward route (rather than
the proper "numbers" route) for such places would end up on an AT&T board which
would have to call the "numbers" route.
This means that if I make a call from Boston via the AT&T operator for help in
calling Montpelier VT, and the operator tries Inward, this means the AT&T (not
New England Telephone) operator for Montpelier, who might be sitting at the
operator position right next to her!
It also means that if I want to call a pay phone in Montpelier collect, AT&T
can't do it anymore, because they can't reach a telco operator. AT&T will call
the pay phone and say that someone's trying to call collect and ask the party
to call back 1+.
Written by: Egghead Dude Edited by: Maxwell Smart
A moment of silence for the dead : Mickey Leland, Bart Giamatti and of
course the good old boys in 301.
Hellos to : Commander Sozo, Master Ryu, The Oxidixer, Jolly Green Giant,
Celtic Phrost and The Genetic Terrorist.
Also to : Lord Blix, The Viper, Software Surgeon, The Guch, The Knack and
all the rest of those 'nifty' guys of the FiRM