Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1991 21:49:30 EDT From: Jeff Wasilko Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: How Were Large Call Volumes Handled Long Ago? Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 282, Message 6 of 11 Lines: 35 ACDs have been mentioned a few times this week, which got me wondering: What did recipients of large volumes of calls do before ACDs? Did someone manually distribute calls? Also, there was a mention some time ago of an ACD that can periodically announce your position in the queue, and the average wait time from that point. Does this actually exist? I've never heard one do that ... as someone who seems to spend a lot of time on hold, I'd love to know how much longer. Jeff Wasilko BITNET: jjwcmp@ritvax INET: jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu INTERNET: jjwcmp@ritvax.rit.edu UUCP: jjwcmp@ultb.UUCP [Moderator's Note: The Chicago Transit Authority (312-MOHawk 7200) has an ACD in their customer service unit which periodically announces your position in the queue ("there are two calls ahead of you"). My first knowledge of ACDs was about 1970. Diner's Club and Amoco Credit Card had one in their sales authorization unit which pumped several hundred calls per hour -- about 10,000 calls daily -- to representatives who would authorize sales over the floor limit. Most calls took about twenty seconds to handle, and came in on 800 numbers. Prior to such systems, incoming calls were handled by large banks of operators at cord switchboards, just like the ones telco used. When I worked at the University of Chicago about 1960, they had 19 operator positions for incoming calls. (Outgoing local calls were made by dialing "9". Long distance went through the switchboard.) With an ACD for incoming calls they were able to cut back to about six operator positions. PAT]