■ A growing system of radio relay routes used for transmitting both long distance telephone conversations and television programs.
■ Highly skilled telephone people living and working in nearly every American community. The Bell System alone employs about 700,000 men and women, who are busy planning, designing, manufacturing, improving, building, operating—all working to fulfill the traditional telephone policy of providing the best possible service at the lowest possible cost.
In the telephone office
Every time you make a telephone call—either by dialing or by giving the operator the number—you first reach the telephone central office. This nerve center of your local telephone system contains equipment through which your telephone can be connected to any other telephone you wish to reach.
In a small community there may be only one central office. In large cities there are many of them, all joined by trunk lines. The term telephone exchange means the whole local area served by one or more central offices.
Over four-fifths of all Bell System telephones are dial-operated. Intricate machinery in the central office makes connections by obeying the electrical signals that you send over your line as you turn the dial on your telephone.
Before you dial, the equipment in the central office tells you it is ready to serve you by transmitting a “hum-m-m-m” over your line. You should hear this dial tone before you start to dial. The dial tone serves the same purpose as the operator’s “Number, please!”
Telephone company buildings are built to harmonize with surroundings in communities where they are located. A central office in California.
