gmw1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) (08/08/89)
Could someone explain just what a toll station is? I've always thought that it's just a subscriber circuit that has to be signalled manually. Is it anything more than that? More importantly, why do toll-stations still exist? Isn't it possible to connect the subscriber to a regular automatic circuit. When I was a senior in High School two years ago, I remember getting literature from Deep Springs College. The literature said, "To contact us, call your long distance carrier and ask for Deep Springs Toll Station #2" -G [Moderator's Note: A toll-station is a telephone in a very remote area so thinly populated that not even a small (but normally operating) exchange can be profitably maintained. The one or two -- sometimes even three or four!! -- phones in the middle of nowhere -- literally! -- are from some other exchange, usually many miles away. Toll-stations are mostly a Nevada phenomenon, but a few exist in western Utah; in Arizona; in the desert area of California; and the northwestern rural area of Idaho...places where the entire population of town is six people. PT]
RS%AI.AI.MIT.EDU@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu (Robert E. Seastrom) (08/09/89)
From: Gabe M Wiener <gmw1 at cunixb.cc.columbia.edu>: > When I was a senior in High School two years ago, I remember getting > literature from Deep Springs College. The literature said, "To contact > us, call your long distance carrier and ask for Deep Springs Toll > Station #2" Hey, I remember getting literature from Deep Springs College too! (In fact, I was a senior in high school 2 years ago also...) Piecing together from memory and from your post, I decided to try this one on a lark. I tried this just before posting this message, so the information is just about as up to date as can be expected. Here's a transcript of the conversation: Me: 10288-0 (no sense trying Sprint on THIS one...) OPR: <BEEP> AT&T Operator, may I help you? Me: Yes, I would like a ringdown please to Deep Springs Toll Station Number 2, Deep Springs, California (Deep Springs College is in Nevada, but Deep Springs, California is the nearest POP) OPR: <laugh... laugh... laugh> Do you have a NUMBER there? Me: Yes, it's Deep Springs Toll Station Number *2* Deep Springs, California. OPR: How am I supposed to dial *THAT* number? Me: Well, if I were you, I'd get in touch with a California operator and see what THEY can do for you... OPR: One moment, sir... <line goes dead for a moment> OPR2: ... Inwards, may I help you? (I obviously missed out on the first half of the ident; bummer!) OPR: Yes, operator, this is the AT&T Operator in Washington, DC and I need a ringdown to Deep Springs Toll Station Number 2 in Deep Springs, California. How do I dial that number? OPR2: Well, you need to dial another operator and she'll dial the call for you. Dial 619-058-121 for Inwards. OPR: Thank you, Operator. <drops connection> <line goes dead for a moment> OPR3: ...Inwards, may I help you? (DAMN! I can't believe my bad luck with this!!) OPR: Yes, I need a ringdown to Deep Springs Toll Station #2, Deep Springs, California... OPR3: One moment please... RECORDING: THE NUMBER YOU HAVE REACHED <click> OPR3: What number did you want? OPR: 2 OPR3: I'm not showing 2; I *am* showing 1, but I'm getting a disconnect on it... OPR: Thank you, operator. <drops connection...> OPR: I'm sorry, sir, but we can't seem to get your call through to that number. Me: Thank you; I'll call directory assistance and see if they can be of any further assistance to me... (breathing sigh of relief that I won't get billed for all this putzing around...) OPR: Thank you for choosing AT&T... <drops connection> (end of conversation)... Has the modern world even caught up with Deep Springs (which is so far out in the middle of nowhere that you can't get any radio stations at ALL during the day)?? Does anyone out there have any CONCRETE evidence of any non-direct-dialable exchanges left ANYWHERE? ---Rob [Moderator's Note: The above message arrived too late to be included in the Digest issued at 1:00 AM, but I did want to include it on the same day for reference with the others, and it gives a good chuckle to close this issue of the Digest. Even as little as thirty years ago, the USA was full of places such as described here, and by John Covert in the previous issue. Operators in the 1940-50 period would have found nothing confusing about such a request at all. See you tomorrow! PT]
ganzer@cod.nosc.mil (Mark T. Ganzer) (08/10/89)
>[Moderator's Note: > ... Toll-stations are mostly a Nevada >phenomenon, but a few exist in western Utah; in Arizona; in the desert area >of California; and the northwestern rural area of Idaho...places where the >entire population of town is six people. PT] Interestingly, until 4-5 years ago, one of our lab's test facilities was served by a toll station. And it wasn't in the desert area of California, but only 5 miles north of the greater Los Angeles basin in the San Gabriel Mountains, in an area served by GTE (our phone book listed it as San Gabriel Canyon Toll Station 32). What surprised me was that there was quite a number of residences a few miles up the canyon, as well as a Forest Service Station. Except for the leased lines from San Diego, not many people knew how to dial into the place (and when I had to, not many operators knew how to either...). As I recall, the complaints from the residents were enough to finally force them to install a microwave link up there, and run a line down to us. I kind of miss that old system. It's a pain to drive 130 miles only to get stuck with a phone in your ear all day...something I could have stayed in the office and done. -- Mark T. Ganzer Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego UUCP: {bonnie,sdcsvax,gould9,hp-sdd} - !nosc!ganzer {apl-uw,ncr-sd,bang,crash } / Internet: ganzer@nosc.mil Compu$erve: 73617,442