Operator assistance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An operator-assisted call is one in which the calling party places a telephone call which requires an operator to provide some form of assistance in completing the call. This may include telephone calls made from pay phones, calls placed station-to-station, person-to-person, collect, calls billed to a credit card, and certain international calls which cannot be dialed directly.
Operator assisted calls can be more expensive than direct dial calls.
The person-to-person call is an operator assisted call in which the calling party wants to speak to a specific party and not simply to anyone who answers. The caller is not charged for the call unless the requested party can be reached. This method was much more popular when telephone calls were relatively expensive. Station-to-station is a method of placing the operator assisted telephone calls in which the calling party agrees to talk to whoever answers the telephone. With the introduction of direct dial telephone service and the subsequent drop in the price of long distance telephone calls, person-to-person service is virtually unheard of.
