504 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



accomplished to a large extent at the present time by providing 

 bi-lingual operators at the terminals of international circuits. Even 

 so. on built-up connections with switches in several countries, operation 

 is cumbersome since the terminal operators may not be able to talk 

 to each other directly. This is one of the problems to which the 

 International Advisory Committee on Long Distance Telephony has 

 been giving attention. It is out of the question in a world-wide 

 telephone system to expect the operator handling the call to be able 

 in all cases to talk directly with the distant subscriber. However, 

 it seems important from the standpoint of giving the highest grade 

 of ser\ice that ultimately she should be able in all cases to talk directly 

 and easily with the operator at the distant national terminal, no 

 matter where this may be. 



Operating and Commercial Practices 



The continental telephone networks have in the past developed to 

 a large extent independently of each other, and it is therefore natural 

 that there should now exist differences in operating and commercial 

 practices, some of which must be considered in giving intercontinental 

 service. In Europe and in the United States, to take, for example, 

 the two largest networks, the point of view in the development of the 

 telephone systems has been somewhat different. In Europe emphasis 

 has been laid on the continuous use of the long toll circuits, developing 

 for them as large a message capacity as possible, while in the United 

 States emphasis has been given to the rapid completion of all calls. 

 This difference in point of view naturally led to differences in practice. 

 For example, the classification of service based upon urgency and the 

 limitation in length of conv^ersations generally in use in Europe are 

 not found in American practice. Also, an important factor in Ameri- 

 can practice for connections over long distances is the so-called person- 

 to-person service in which a specified person is called rather than a 

 specified telephone num.ber, and the order is considered satisfied only 

 when the person called is brought to the telephone. This service 

 has not been generally used in European practice. These serve as 

 illustrations of the type of difference in practice which must be adjusted 

 between the administrations involved in establishing new inter- 

 continental services, and it is evident that as these services become 

 more used and more nearly uni\ersal, these adjustments will become 

 increasingly important. 



A consideration which might be important in the de\elopment of 

 intercontinental services in some cases is a difference in standards of 

 transmission or of speed of completion of calls. In recent years 



