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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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8th Dec 2017, 11:16 am | #1 |
Dekatron
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Phone accounts / bills
Prompted by picture of a line of phone switch board operators, how did the phone companies keep track of phone calls?
John. |
8th Dec 2017, 12:01 pm | #2 |
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
The operators filled out a "ticket" for each call. This was forwarded to Telephone Accounts Group (TAG) who produced the bills and sent them to the subscribers.
The operator positions had timers, known as clocks, to time calls where necessary.
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Graham. Forum Moderator Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron. |
8th Dec 2017, 10:04 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
And in times-past when calls weren't all 'operator-connected' each line had a digital [yes, it had rows of numbers!] meter associated with it.
A thing like the old mechanical 'mileometers' on cars: drums on a spindle numbered 0-9 round the edge with a little peg that flipped the higher-order digit over when passing 0. They were solenoid operated by way of metering pulses. There would be a whole wall of these in a typical large exchange. Every quarter they would be photographed to record what had been used ! |
8th Dec 2017, 10:52 pm | #4 |
Dekatron
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
I thought calls may have been recorded on paper, but never seen it or the clocks. The operators must have had to listen in to hear when the call was ended, but how many calls at once did they have to monitor?
Ah the meters that brought back memories, When I was at Infant school we had a visit to Hull Telephones a privately owned exchange, They had a small counter at the side of each set of selectors, rows and rows of them. I think it may have always been automatic with no operators in sight. in the late 1980s ? they introduced "System X" I think. It was computer based and had all the features of modern phones. John. |
8th Dec 2017, 10:58 pm | #5 |
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Indicators associated with each cord circuit showed when either party on a call hung up. The ticket would be placed under a clip next to the cord circuit, so the operator knew which ticket was for which call.
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9th Dec 2017, 12:13 am | #6 |
Dekatron
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
For a price you could have the meter in your premises (presumably a duplicate). They were advanced by the line reversals mentioned earlier in the thread. Anyone who had to pass on charges might have had one.
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9th Dec 2017, 12:22 am | #7 |
Octode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
At the Milton Keynes museum they have a large room detailing the history of telephony. They have a fully working Uni-selector exchange where you can pick up a phone and dial another phone in the room. It's fascinating to watch the selectors as you dial- truly a marvel of mechanical/ electrical engineering.
As part of the exchange is a bank of call recorders exactly as described in post 3. Each digital recorder (about 2" x 1") has a serial number which I assume is allocated to a particular subscriber. They also have fully working 'jack plug' exchange which you can operate yourself. It's a very 'hands on' museum! Well worth a visit. Cheers Nick |
9th Dec 2017, 12:07 pm | #8 | |
Heptode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Quote:
When call finished she withdrew the cords as usual and passed the completed ticket on for billing. |
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9th Dec 2017, 6:56 pm | #9 |
Retired Dormant Member
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
I might have it wrong but I don't think so. As I recall it only private home phones were billed by timing. The old A/B telephone kiosks you could talk as long as you wanted once you'd put your 4d in. It was only with the modern slot telephones that timing of 3 minutes for 2p came in.
As I say my memory might be incorrect. |
9th Dec 2017, 7:29 pm | #10 |
Dekatron
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
AFAIR you only used to get unlimited local calls for your 4d. Longer distance calles were charged on a "per 3 mins" basis.
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9th Dec 2017, 7:36 pm | #11 |
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Yes that would make sense. I can't remember if long distance calls had to be made via the operator in that case when using an A/B box.
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9th Dec 2017, 8:37 pm | #12 |
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Prior to the introduction of STD there were no Local Call Timers in small exchanges, so you could talk all day for a fixed fee. However this thread is about operator controlled calls. In that case at three minute intervals the operator could add more time to the ticket or ask the caller to insert more money.
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9th Dec 2017, 10:18 pm | #13 | |
Heptode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Quote:
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10th Dec 2017, 2:59 pm | #14 | |
Heptode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Quote:
Up to the late 1950's, residential subscribers' rental included free local calls up to a certain limit. For instance in 1957, the line rental for a residential subscriber (outside London and the other Director areas )was £2 5s 0d but that included 10s 5p worth of calls per half year as part of their 'subscription' . This had been around since the days pf the National Telephone Company. Rural party lines were a little different. They had a lower line rental in 1957 , the rental was £1.10s.0d provided there were at least two subscribers per line of the line. The rental included unlimited calls on the exchange to which the line was connected!! For those who have not come across 'rural party lines' before, they dated back the early days where the line rental rose rapidly after the first mile so a number of folk would share the same line and were called by code ringing by the operator. Eventually they were replaced by Country Satellite Exchanges (CSX) where up ten subscribers shared two pairs of wires but with privacy & individual ringing. Their calls were still made by the operator who timed the calls if needed in the sae way that their manual exchange used. |
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10th Dec 2017, 3:17 pm | #15 | ||
Heptode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Quote:
Last edited by Pellseinydd; 10th Dec 2017 at 3:34 pm. |
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11th Dec 2017, 11:02 am | #16 |
Hexode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
I worked in a trunk exchange (Rampart TSU) and we had meters to charge back to the local areas as well, before the cameras came in in the mid 80's it was 'selected a T2A and go do the meter readings' with a typical Clerical person.
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11th Dec 2017, 1:51 pm | #17 |
Nonode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Something more than a few on here doesn't know about, as the "J" key made calls free. Or at least in the local area. Sometimes, ( as in A team speak), if you could get an operator that knew you /recognised your voice call were always free. It was only in the larger places that this camaraderie fell down. Even with STD, all official numbers were not charged.
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11th Dec 2017, 6:23 pm | #18 | |
Heptode
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Quote:
I had one for many years from the mid-1970's when they were very cheap to rent (£1.00 approx. per quarter). If you had one, the PO/BT couldn't make you a party line as it only worked on DELs ! The service was finally withdrawn in 2008 and BT only offered CPA (Called Party Answer - line reversal) and left any 'metering' to the end equipment. How far we've come from an operator timing the call with a clock and writing the info on a 'ticket' for the clerical folk to work the cost out! |
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11th Dec 2017, 9:14 pm | #19 |
Dekatron
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
My mistake, thanks for correcting it.
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11th Dec 2017, 9:37 pm | #20 | |
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Re: Phone accounts / bills
Quote:
Any coments from Mods? Cheers Mike T
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