The process of making a phone call, either from a private number or a public call box, was set to become easier and cheaper after an announcement made 60 years ago today.
Up to that point, only local calls, routed through a single telephone exchange switchboard, could be dialled directly. For calls over longer distances, which had to be routed through more than one exchange, people had to rely on help from ‘the operator’.
Making these ‘trunk calls’ meant picking up your receiver and dialling the operator then asking to be connected to the area and telephone number that you needed. Each local exchange had at least one and sometimes several operators, usually women, who were trained to connect calls across the region, country, or even internationally.
It was a convoluted and expensive process which was thought to be holding back use of the telephone both by private individuals and businesses. Some people also suspected ‘the operator’ of listening in on their calls, especially in smaller communities where most people knew each other. In reality this was a bit of a myth, but one perpetuated by many feature films and radio comedies.
The solution was automated direct dialling for trunk calls and on May 21st, 1958, a new pilot scheme was announced by the General Post Office (GPO), which at that time was solely responsible for Britain’s telecommunications. According to Postmaster General Ernest Marples, the new system would make calls easier and cheaper. He confidently predicted that by 1970, three-quarters of all trunk calls would be dialled directly, without the help of the operator.
First to benefit would be 18,000 ‘telephone subscribers’ in the Bristol area, who would be able to make automated trunk calls from December of that year. Once the equipment was proven and any glitches ironed out, it would be rolled out across the country as part of a huge programme by the GPO to modernise the nation’s telephone system.
It was concerned that development of the telephone network in Britain was stalled. On average there were less than two calls per day per telephone in the UK – less than half the number in the USA. However, Britain’s bigger cities, including London, would have to wait longer for the new automated system, because more complex equipment would be needed.
Under the new automated system, all calls would be charged automatically according to the length of time and the distance covered. Prices would start at two old pence (2d) and a three-minute call would cost two shillings and sixpence, a whole shilling less than under the previous operator-controlled system.
The changes would also affect public call boxes, widely used and found on almost every street corner in 1958. New coin-operated public phones would be installed in kiosks throughout the Bristol area and Mr Marples demonstrated to curious reporters how they would work.
A caller would pick up the handset and dial the full number, then only insert the money once the call was answered. A series of ‘pips’ would indicate when the time paid for was running out, so that the caller could either insert more coins to continue speaking, or close the conversation and hang up. It was all quite revolutionary for 1958!
Work pressed ahead on installing the new automated exchanges and other equipment and, right on schedule, the system was initiated in the Bristol area on December 5th. The very first direct-dialled automated trunk call was made by none other than Queen Elizabeth II when she officially opened Bristol’s new automated telephone exchange. She made a direct call from there to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 300 miles away, lasting just over two minutes and costing 10d.
With the new system proven, work pressed ahead on expanding it and in 1976, less than 20 years later, Britain’s telephone system became fully automatic with the closure of the last manual exchange, at Portree, on the Isle of Skye.