Traffic Service Position System No. 1: Remote Trunk Arrangement: Overall Description and Operational Characteristics

The Traffic Service Position System No. 1 ( T S P S ) helps the operator more efficiently handle toll calls such as collect, credit card, charge to third number, and coin toll calls. Key elements of the system design were to have all calls served by a single large team of operators, to divide the large team into smaller groups of a maximum of 62 operators for administrative purposes, to permit the location of the groups remote from the base unit near good labor markets, and to achieve high concentrations of traffic to fully utilize the expensive equipment needed to handle the complex, detailed toll calls. The initial market for T S P S was in large metropolitan areas having high traffic density and high employee turnover. As the needs of the 1119 metropolitan areas were being met, it became apparent that the benefits of TSPS would be desirable in more sparsely populated areas for two major reasons. The first was that, because of their small size-- 50 position switchboards and smaller--rural operator teams are less cost effective. Moreover, there is a special need to increase efficiency in off-hours when average traffic might not require the services of a single operator. Providing the supporting personnel facilities for small groups added to the cost. The second reason for providing TSPS service in rural areas was to provide uniformity of service to all customers. An increasingly mobile population anticipates the same type of telephone service nationwide. To provide the benefits of TSPS operation in rural areas, several approaches were investigated, including a scaled-down version of TSPS and the incorporation of TSPS features in a local switching system.