Traffic Service Position System No. 1 Recent Developments: An Overview

The Busy Line Verification feature is a recent development in the Traffic Service Position System (TSPS) No. 1. This feature allows a TSPS operator to verify the busy or idle state of a customer line. Based on a calling customer's request, the TSPS operator initiates a connection of his or her position through a dedicated switched network to a special trunk in the end office of the line to be verified. The operator can determine from a console lamp if the phone is off‐hook and can listen for conversation on the line. To protect customer privacy, a special circuit scrambles the conversation to make it unintelligible—but still recognizable as speech. By depressing a key on the console, which deactivates the scrambler and generates an alerting tone, the operator is also able to interrupt conversation and deliver an emergency notification. The new verification feature also provides for automatic message accounting records and for coin and hotel charge quotations when tariffs include charges for verification. By serving busy line verification requests that previously had to be handled through manual switchboards, the new TSPS feature saves operator time and costs for the operating company.

Traffic Service Position System No. 1: Busy Line Verification Feature

Atkins¹,

Raschke²,

Woody³

1980

Stored Program Controlled Network: Calling Card Service-Overall Description and Operational Characteristics

Basinger¹,

Berger²,

Prell³

et al. 1982

Conventionally, operator assistance is required for most nonsent paid telephone calls (calls that are billed to a number other than the calling number). Examples of these calls include collect, credit card, and bill‐to‐third‐number. These three types of calls currently represent about two‐thirds of all operator‐handled toll calls. To reduce the need for operator assistance, a new service, Calling Card Service, enables customers to make credit card calls by dialing in the billing information without the assistance of an operator; it also provides an alternative to operator‐assisted collect and bill‐to‐third‐number calls. This new capability is made possible through changes in the Traffic Service Position System (tsps) No. 1, and uses the Stored Program Controlled (spc) Network. By providing customers with an alternative to operator assistance, Calling Card Service is helping the Bell Operating Companies (bocs) and independent telephone companies stabilize operator work force requirements. This paper gives a basic description of Calling Card Service and the customer interface. It also describes the implementation in tsps, and other areas of the spc network, and discusses some of the effects on telephone company operations.

Traffic Service Position System No. 1B: Integration and System Testing

Ahmari¹,

DiPietro²,

Reed³

et al. 1983

The integration testing and system testing strategies used in the development of the Traffic Service Position System No. 1B (TSPS No. 1B) are described in this article. It discusses novel methods developed for the integration and testing of the first embedded application of the 3B20D Processor and DMERT operating system. The new testing techniques and project management aides, which were vital to the achievement of system quality for the Bell System service, are described. The first TSPS No. 1B went into service on November 20, 1981, in Fresno, California.