American Telephone & Telegraph Co. says it will return about 40 percent of its long-distance operators to local operating companies beginning in October, 1986. Many of the operators who moved over to AT&T during the breakup of the telecommunications giant will be going back to their former employers. These operators provide long distance services, such as person-to-person and credit card calls, within the market service areas in each state. Long distance calls within these areas–there are 19 in Illinois–are handled by local operating companies such as Illinois Bell. Calls between such marketing areas must be handled by a long distance carrier.
There are about 1,900 AT&T operators in Illinois.
”We`ve been providing this operator service for the local operating companies under contract since the divestiture, because it was not
technologically feasible for them to do it themselves,” said an AT&T spokesman.
