Information about telephone operator

A telephone operator at work on a private switchboard

A telephone operator is either

a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls (called reversed-charge calls in the UK), calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain international calls which cannot be dialed directly.
a company that offers telephone services to subscribers. For example, users of a mobile phone will register with a mobile phone operator to receive GSM services.

With the development of computerized telephone dialing systems, many telephone calls which previously required a live operator can be placed automatically by the calling party without additional human intervention. Before the advent of automatic exchanges, an operator's assistance was required for anything other than calling telephones across a shared party line. Callers spoke to an operator at a switching office who then literally connected their wire to the proper circuit in order to complete the call. Being in complete control of the call, the operator was in a position to listen to private conversations. Direct Dial (DDD) systems were developed in the 1920s to reduce labor costs as usage increased, and to ensure privacy to the customer. As phone systems became more sophisticated, this sort of direct intervention by the telephone operator was needed less and less.

As well as those employed by the public networks, operators were also needed by companies to answer incoming calls and connect them to the correct extension. This function is still needed but answering systems with automated attendants and automated directories have reduced the workload of operators and in small companies the operator usually has other functions such as greeting visitors.

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Early telephone operators. The very first telephone operators (from 1878 onwards) were teenage boys. They had been used successfully as telegraph operators for many years but proved unsuitable for telephone service. They were replaced by women and operators have been almost exclusively female ever since.

The telephone is a telecommunications device which is used to transmit and receive sound (most commonly speech). Most telephones operate through transmission of electric signals over a complex telephone network which allows almost any phone user to communicate with almost anyone.
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An operator-assisted call is one in which the calling party places a telephone call which requires an operator to provide some form of assistance in completing the call. This may include telephone calls made from pay phones, calls placed station-to-station, person-to-person,
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A payphone or pay phone is a public telephone, with payment by inserting money (usually coins) or a debit card (a special telephone card or a multi-purpose card) or credit card before a call is made.
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A collect call in the USA and Canada or reverse charge in the UK and other countries (or calling collect) is a telephone call in which the calling party wants to place a call at the called party's expense.
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Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" ^[2] (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" ^[3]
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A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. A credit card is different from a debit card in that it does not remove money from the user's account after every transaction.
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This is a list of country calling codes defined by ITU-T recommendation E.164.

At a glance

+0: Not used
+1: NANP +1: US, CA
See List +1 242: BS +1 246: BB +1 264: AI
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Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) or direct dial is a telecommunications term for a network-provided service feature in which a call originator may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area.
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mobile phone or cell phone is a long-range, portable electronic device used for mobile communication. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching
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A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as wireless service provider, wireless carrier, mobile phone operator, or cellular company, is a telephone company that provides services for mobile phone subscribers.
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GSM services are a standard collection of applications and features available to mobile phone subscribers all over the world. The GSM standards are defined by the 3GPP collaboration and implemented in hardware and software by equipment manufacturers and mobile phone operators.
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computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions.

Computers take numerous physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1941), although the computer concept and various machines
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A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.

Information transmission

A telephone call may consist of an ordinary voice transmission using a telephone, a data transmission when the calling party and called party
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The calling party (also called caller, call originator or A-party) is a person who (or device that) initiates a telephone call over the public switched telephone network, usually by dialing a telephone number.
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In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls.
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In 20th century telephone systems, a party line (also multiparty line or Shared Service Line) is an arrangement in which two or more customers are connected directly to the same local loop.
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A company is a form of business organization.

Types

There are various types of company that can be formed in different jurisdictions, but the most common forms of company are:

a company limited by shares.

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An extension telephone is an additional telephone wired to the same telephone line as another. In middle 20th century telephone jargon, the first telephone on a line was a "Main Station" and subsequent ones "Extensions".
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In telephony, an automated attendant (also auto attendant or auto-attendant, or sometimes autoattendant or AA) system allows callers to be automatically transferred to a user's extension without the intervention of a receptionist.
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A receptionist is a person in an office/administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting area such as a lobby or front office/desk of an organization or business.
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A switchboard (also called a manual exchange) was a device used to connect a group of telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection, within and between telephone exchanges or private branch exchanges (PBXs). The user was typically known as an operator.
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