Omaha daily bee., 1906-02-04
/ ALL PHONE NUMBERS CHANGE
New Office Telephone Company Thrown
Into Service at Midnight Saturday.
NEW NUMBERS ARE IN GREEN DIRECTORY
The Prefix Must he Given 10 the
Operator, Because without
IL She Cannot Make
Connection.

As the clock struck IL last night the
pressing of a single button transferred al
Of the telephone subscribers in the west
part of Omaha from the switchboard at
the headquarters building on Eighteenth
and Douglas streets to the new telephone
building at Thirty-third and Harvey streets
and the Harvey exchange was in full op-
Grafton at once.
The telephone subscribers in the new dis
trict, which covers the entire western por-
tion of the city from South Omaha to Bon
son, will be answered when they take their
telephone from the hook by the operators
in the new office, while those in the eastern
part of the city win obtain their service
through the old exchange in the past
For the past three months thirty men
have been working day and night in the
new building to install the switchboard,
and equal number have been at work at
the old building placing the necessary ap-
paratus for making connections between
the two offices. Fifty extra girls were en-
ploycd the 1st of September and have been
continually and persistently drilled tole-
phone operators in order that the service
in the now office might be maintained at a
high standard.
All telephone numbers in the Harvey OK
change district havc been given the prefix
ftaTneN IN order TO distinguish tnem from
those al the old Office.
With the rapid growth during the past
year the Telephone company has increased
the number of subscribers in Omaha to
| 1900 and the ultimate capacity of the
switchboard in the main office. which is
of the largest type designed, has been
reached. In order that the subscribers
may get immediate service, each line in an
exchange must be within the reach of each
operator, and the largest switchboard at
the present time does not permit of placing
more than 1900 subscribers in front of an
operator. The only recourse for increasing
beyond this point Is to establish second
exchange. 1t then becomes necessary to
use prefix. that the operator may know
through which Office to make the connec-
ton. Where the patron takes individual
line service. the Telephone company has
been able in most cases to retain the same
number in the new office merely adding
the prefix, but in many cases where a
| number does not appear in the new eX-
change 1t has been necessary to assign a
new number.
The officials of the company appreciate
the annoyance to the subscribers and the
drag on the service introduced by a change
in numbers, and wish to assure all sub
which were not absolutely necessary.
The automatic circuits for making con-
nections between the telephone exchanges
have been perfected that the subscriber
knows no difference in the service from
what he has been accustomed to in the
one exchange. II each subscriber of the
Telephone company will care in re-
ferring to the new directory for all num-
bers and give distinctly to the operator
the prefix and new number, his service
will be the same he has received here
tofore.
In connection with the opening of the new
exchange tho Telephone company has
greatly extended its underground system,
placing all of the more important lines
underground In addition to this, as far
as possible, the open wire leads have been
abandoned and replaced by cable, and
wherever possible distribution has been
placed in the alleys and on property lines
in the rear of buildings in order to keep
! the streets as free possible from poles.