larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (09/25/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0398m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> the Telecom Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: A curiosity when I was employed by the University of > Chicago Telecommunications Department (then, in 1959-61 they just called > it the 'telephone room') were the two TWX machines. > ... We plugged in on our board to tie-lines which went straight > to certain positions at telco. They knew it was UC calling, and all we had > to pass was the caller's extension number; then we could cut out and go > on to other calls. Once an hour, the aforementioned TWX would come to life > and a message would print out listing 'time and charges by extension'. We > took this and matched it with the toll tickets we started when first > putting the call through. All this machine was ever used for was to bring > us the time and charges, for billing purposes to the campus extensions. > IBT billed the campus master account; we re-billed each department. PT] This service, which must be pretty rare by now, was referred to as "Toll Subscriber Line Service". The tie lines were ground-start trunks at the PBX end (for either manual and/or dial level access), and terminated in special toll subscriber trunks at a No. 1 or No. 3 Toll Board, or in later years at a TSPS installation. Since these toll subscriber trunks served specific locations, the toll operator obviously knew where the call had originated. Prior to TSPS, the originator of the call never dialed any digits; they gave the desired number to the operator along with their room or extension number, and the call was completed by the operator in a manner no different than dialing "0". Once per hour, toll tickets from toll subscriber customers would be collected from toll board operators, the call rated, and charges transmitted to the subscriber PBX via a teletype or by having an operator call the PBX attendant. Teletypes were simply a point-to-point manual link, and were only used in higher traffic installations. The PBX subscriber paid an additional rate for this service. As TSPS became more common, toll subscriber line service permitted the originator of the call to dial the desired number into a toll trunk and register, with the TSPS operator coming on the line only to ask for room or extension number. It was not possible to eliminate the operator since there was no ANI from the PBX to indicate the room or extension identity. In the late 1970's the Bell System offered a totally automatic toll subscriber service called HOBIS (Hotel Billing Information System) which required no TSPS operator intervention. HOBIS automatically transmitted calling data to a teletype as it occurred. HOBIS did require the subscriber PBX to have ANI or SMDR capability; I don't know the exact details, however. Most of the toll subscriber line customers were hotels, with the rest being universities, hospitals and similar facilities. With the extensive use of electronic PABX's having SMDR and call-costing capability, toll subscriber lines are pretty much a thing of the past as hotels and other subscribers are quite capable of determining toll charges on their own. Also, the advent of divestiture, ALDS and AOS has totally changed the picture; since the philosophy behind HOBIS does not exactly fit in this picture, HOBIS may well be dead. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" [Moderator's Note: Well, that was a heavy traffic location. We had about 4000 campus extensions; three separate groups of incoming CO trunks (MIdway-3-0800, MUseum 4-6100, NOrmal 7-4700, with about 250 incoming CO trunks between them. The 'Midway board' served the main campus with about 2500 extensions spaced over nine positions; the 'Museum board' had about 1000-1200 extensions and served the Medical Center on six positions; and the 'Normal board' had a mere three positions serving maybe 500 phones at the Enrico Fermi Labs and the Computation Center. All sixteen or eighteen positions (I forget exactly) had tie-trunks to each other, of course, so that a caller in the 8000 series of extensions (Fermi) reached the 2000 series of extensions (main campus) by going off hook and asking for the desired extension. The operator who took the call would select a tie-trunk to a position on the other side of the room. When that operator came on, she did not speak: you knew she was there because you heard a 'click' in your ear, and you would repeat "2374", or whatever your caller had told you. As fast as you could say the 'two three' part of it, she already had the cord up to that strip. When you got the 'seven four' part out, she was testing for busy with the jack. If she heard a click, the line was busy and she would so quote; otherwise she shoved in the jack and was ringing it. I dare say manual service with *trained* operators was just as fast as dial service; maybe faster sometimes. By around 1962 the extensions at least could dial each other and outside local calls even though the operators still took incoming and long distance stuff. PT]