At&t Bell Laboratories

Palanichamy Raghavan

William Jackson Bushnell

Richard W Hemmeter

An arrangement for serving an operator assistance request detected in a first operator assistance system from an operator position in a second operator assistance system. If a first operator assistance system is overloaded or has no attended operator positions, the two operator assistance systems cooperate to establish a connection between the customer requesting operator assistance and the operator position in the second system. The attending operator at that position keys information into the operator position for transmission to the first system. Responsive to this data, the first system enters data, such as billing data, into its records, and sets up connections, such as a connection for a person-to-person call, in its switching network. The arrangement can be used to transfer operator assistance requests at night, during overload, or to specialized operators not available at the first office. The arrangement can also be used on a permanent basis, to transfer all operator assistance requests, when a serving team of operators cannot be economically justified for the first office.

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Woodridge, IL, United States of America

Palanichamy Raghavan