Busy Days For Telephone Exchange Staff

Chronicle (Levin), 22 December 1949, Page 4

Busy Days For Telephone Exchange Staff

Although 664 is the largest number of outgoing toll calls handled in one day by the staff of the Levin telephone exchange, traffic over the last few days has gone close to breaking that record. On Monday 646 calls were made and had it not been for an unavoidable delay, because of which a further 20 calls were cancelled, a new record would have been set. The pressure has eontinued each day and the harassed toll oper-' ators will be pleased when the holiday rush is over. One operator told a reporter yesterday • that a minute's forgetfulness on the board during a rush period would be fatal. "It is not as if there is only one thing to watch at a time. An operator is usually speaking to one subscriber whfie he is dialling a number for another, and at this time of the year that goes on continuously." Operators on the boards handling local calls have also found a greatly increased volume of work to handle. This week these calls have also risen greatly above the normal.