Before smartphones, landline telephones were the way most people kept in touch. And until direct dialing became common, a switchboard operator's assistance was often needed to help with long-distance ...

When someone calls 911, the time it takes for paramedics to arrive can be the difference between life and death. Minnesota lawmaker Julie Sandstede knows this. She represents a rural area, where ...

On March 19, 1918, Miss Hortense Levy of Philadelphia received a telegraph instructing her to report for training in telephony, also known as telephone operation. According to historian Rebecca ...

This photo, made in 1913, shows telephone operators - known as “hello” girls - on break on the roof garden of the Rosedale Exchange building in Fort Worth. Courtesy AT&T Archives and History Center ...

ALBANY — Less than two miles behind the front lines during World War I, some American women telephone operators sat at switchboards that shook severely from the sounds of the big guns they could hear ...

CUMBERLAND, R.I. (WPRI) — Three years ago, Rena Fleury went into cardiac arrest at a Cumberland High School football game and died after the 911 dispatcher failed to recognize the 45-year-old needed ...

For more than a year after the United States entry into World War I on April 2, 1917, there was a disconnect between the way the War Department wanted to staff essential communications positions and ...

A reunion of Maine switchboard operators highlights the challenges of making a phone call more than 50 years ago and what it was like to handle... Telephone operators of another era gather to ...