IZZYAS1@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (Andy Jacobson) (02/24/91)
In TELECOM Digest Volume 11 : Issue 138 > Moderator's Note: A 'special operator' (at least as the term is used > in Chicago) is an operator who takes intercept calls and handles them > manually as opposed to a fully automatic response. It sometimes > happens there is a temporary equipment failure and that the number you > are dialing (or calling from) does not get captured by the equipment. > It is very rare, but I will now and then dial a number and have an > operator come on the line to say " ... special operator. What number > are you calling from, please?" ("what number are you dialing?"). PAT Ah yes the old intercept operator, I remember her well ... I would have to say frequent not rare. I can remember getting them every once in a while in Chicago by dialing regular numbers not in service. It seems that you would get an intercept fairly often when dialing in the 99's. That is 312-NXX-99XX. In and among the test lines and telco offices, frames and test boards, you could usually find a number or two that were dead ends to an intercept. NXX-9909 and 9910 it seems were actually a good bet to get an intercept (alternately with a test port). I can also remember the intercept being used en mass with cutovers. For example when 312 (now 708)-491 got cut over to ESS from XB (this was well before Northwestern ate 491 for its PBX), I distinctly remember there were for a couple of days no "The number you have reached ..." recordings, just frantic intercept operators checking the database and telling you that it was not in service. I believe these operators were not specifically assigned, but were pressed into service from other pools, as a couple of times they would begin their general assistance or directory script, catch and correct themselves midsentence. I have never gotten one in any other area but Chicago. Andy Jacobson <izzyas1@oac.ucla.edu> or <izzyas1@UCLAMVS.bitnet> [Moderator's Note: I remember well back in 1966 when the University of Illinois at Navy Pier moved en-masse to their new offices at what was then called 'Circle Campus'. The new location had a centrex (312-996) and the old location had a multi (nine or ten) position cord board. For about two months following the move, calls to the old switchboard number were answered by an IBT intercept operator "what extension were you calling at UI?" When you gave the extension number they said "thank you, the new number to dial is 996-xxxx" after checking a cross reference chart of old versus new extension numbers. Then one day they stopped doing that and calls to the old number got a recording saying the new number was the switcboard number at the new site. PAT]