In telephony, the long-distance operator is available to assist with making long-distance telephone calls, answering billing questions, making collect calls, and other functions including emergency assistance.
When calling longdistance, the customer often would not have the phone number available, so would simply ask for the name and city of the person desired.
The longdistanceoperator would plug into the trunk for the distant city, and the inward operator in the distant city would answer, obtain the number from their local information operator, and ring the call.
If the number was in a distant city, the operator would call the inward operator in the destination city, and ask her to try the number, or to test a line to see if it was busy or out of order.
Longdistance operator-assisted rates from pay phones are often high, sometimes set at the maximum rate allowed under current regulations.
MCI offered among the lowest operator assisted longdistancecollect rates for a call from Austin to Houston ($1.81 for the first minute and $0.34 for each additional), and ATandT was competitive with a "Call ATT" rate of $2.74/$0.35 and a normal operator assist rate of $4.15/$0.39.
Operators for 37 phones at 21 locations (29 percent of phones surveyed) quoted us the maximum rate allowed under current Texas regulations, demonstrating that many companies are charging as much as they can.
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