The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-04-29
TELEPHONE CALLS
New Arrangement to Go Into Effect
May list

Various reductions in rates or extern
sions of talking periods are announc-
ed by The New EAsliud Telephone
and Telegraph company in connection
with a change in the method OF hand
ling short haul toll ,al!s.
After May Isl toll calls to most
points within Is miles OF any ex-
change will be handled by what is
known as the twO.number nodeiay
method" This oDyiates the necessity
of referring the call to the toll opera
tor and the somewhat cumbersome
process of having her ash a lot OF
questions such as Whom do you
wish to speak to-" IF Mr. So-and-So
is out will you talk to any one else?"
Who will speak at your telephone
and SO on.
Under the old method of operating,
these questions were unavoidable be-
cause the answers were being jotted
down by a recording clerk who In
turn sent the slip containing these dir
ections to the toll operator. Natur-
ally this process consumed good
deal of valuable time and time is
N0A AlnROi tdlll NOllClQtia III AilC
transaction of business affairs in This
swiftly moving country.
After carefully observing the res
ults throughout the territory for
slightly shorter distances the tele-
phone people concluded they could
handle calls up to, and including Is
miles just as local calls are now han
died. that is, by number. Instead of
calling for some particular person,
therefore, and being subjected to the
exhaustive cross-examination of the
toll recording operator, the caller
must ask his local operator for the
number he desires and then hold the
receiver to his ear until the person
at the other end responds.
In some places the work OF supply
ing the necessary extra cable will not
have been completed in time to per
nit the operation of this No-Delay
System on May l, but will be put into
effect as soon as possible.
Under the old plan, one could call
for particular party and be charged
reduced rate If this party were not
on hand to answer This practice
will be abandoned under the new sys-
TEN Of handling toll calls whose rad
/ ius is not more than 10 miles from
the calling exchange. All calls will
have to be made by number but If for
any reason the number desired does
not answer there viii be no charge
for the call
Wherever this new plan has been
tried it is said to have given great
satisfaction to subscribers, inasmuch
as connections are made in less than
one-tenth Che time consumed in the
old toll routine.
After carefully tabulating calls GOV.
ering extended periods. the telephone
people found that of what are known
as particular party calls" in other
words calls for a designated person,
in SO per cent of the cases the party
wanted was found at the other end
of the line or within easy reach while
in an additional six per cent of par
ticular party calls the call was com
pleted TO some other person as a sat
isfactory substitute. It is calculated
from this ratio, therefore, that even
the comparatively small number of
particular party calls would benefit
by the changes announced, while on
toll calls as a whole there would be
decided reduction in cost as well as
an increase in efficiency.
1t is said by those conyersant with
the matter that it will not be long be-
fore this "two-number" system of
handling toll calls will be extended to
apply between points 40 to so miles
distant and even between such places
as Boston and New York, where there
is a heavy toll traffic.
Points in this locality favorably az
fected by reduction in rate from 10
to 10 cents or an extension of the
three minute period to five minutes
are as follows.
Bennington to Pownal, Arlington.
North Adams, Mass, Williamstown,
Mass and Arlington to Manchester
and Bennington.
To these exchanges the operation
of the no-delay system is to go into
effect as soon after May 1 as neces-
sary construction work is completed.