Murray.pa@XEROX.COM (11/25/86)
From a blurb in my PacTel bill: "California telephone companies will implement a new "Relay" service for all California customers on Janurary 1, 1987. This Relay service connects hearing or speech impaired persons with all other telephone users within the State." The rest of the blurb describes how it works. You call an 800 number on your TTD and type in the phone number of the person you want to "talk" to. (TTD is Telecommunications Device for the Deaf, aka pseudo TTY.) The person who answers also has a normal phone, dials the call, and then relays pieces of the converstation back and forth. It also works in the reverse direction (different 800 number). No charge except for long distance or non-local calls. This could raise interesting privacy issues.