Transaction Network, Telephones, and Terminals: The Switched Network Transaction Telephone System

During the past few years, the Bell System has been actively engaged in developing new offerings to satisfy the unique communication needs of financial and retail establishments. Clerks and tellers who deal directly with customers need access to information in remote data bases to authorize credit, cash checks, or handle account transactions. As our society moves toward the implementation of electronic funds transfer systems, many new communication offerings are required. In June of 1972, an 3475 AT&T/BTL project team was formed to determine these growing needs. After visiting a large number of financial customers throughout the country and conducting an extensive market survey, the project team developed a proposal for a Transaction telephone system which used the public switched telecommunications network and which could evolve simultaneously with the increasing communication needs of the financial and retail industries. A technical trial of the first stage in the project team's proposal was conducted with the regional data center for Master Charge transactions in Cleveland, Ohio, from October 1973 to February 1974. During this trial, 33 trial Transaction telephones were installed in 13 retail outlets in the Cleveland-Akron area, eight modified 407A data sets were interfaced to the regional Master Charge computer, and a custom-designed automatic call distributor (ACD) referral system was interfaced to the existing Master Charge ACD facility. Retail clerks were able to automatically dial the computer center and enter transaction data directly into the computer.