THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040465
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
In the old days, telephone operators were paid to be neighborly. They chatted with customers about the weather or the news of the day in between connecting calls or dispensing phone numbers.
But that was before cost-efficiency studies, downsizing and competition in the telephone business. Now, Bell Atlantic Corp. operators aren't being nearly as generous with information as they once were.
Starting Monday, the regional phone company told its ``0'' operators to stop telling customers the time of day or the area code for a distant city, among other things.
Instead, the calls will be referred to ``411'' directory-assistance operators - meaning a potential charge for what was once a free service. Bell Atlantic customers are allowed three free directory-assistance calls a month. After that they're charged 29 cents a call.
``Services like this were fine at a time when we were a monopoly business,'' said Paul Miller, a spokesman for Virginia's largest local phone company. But with Bell Atlantic likely to face competition within the next year in the local-exchange telephone business, ``the company has to find ways to cut costs.''
Miller said at least one operator service was eliminated. You can't dial ``0'' any longer and ask an operator to call back to verify your phone is ringing. Miller said operators will simply instruct callers to ask a friend or neighbor to do that.
Besides area-code requests, Bell Atlantic's ``0'' operators will also refer to directory assistance requests for the city in which a particular telephone exchange is located, Miller said.
If customers dial ``0'' and ask for the time of day, they'll be referred to directory assistance, which will provide the phone number for that service, Miller said.
``This isn't a money-making venture for us,'' he said. ``It's more a matter of recovering our costs.'' He pointed out that Bell Atlantic has many more directory-assistance operators than ``0'' operators.
Not every phone company in Virginia has adopted Bell Atlantic's new policy.
``We do provide those types of answers and services, when our customers dial ``0,'' ' said Lacy Yeatts, a spokeswoman for GTE Corp., the state's second-largest local phone company. ``At the present time, we don't plan to make any changes.''
Yeatts said some things have changed even at GTE over the years, however. It's unlikely the phone company's operators will go to the lengths one did some years back, she said.
``We had a man call on Thanksgiving Day and ask one of our operators how to bake a turkey,'' Yeatts said. ``She told him.'' ILLUSTRATION: B\W photo
[man using an old telephone]
by CNB