History - 1971 - highway call boxes, direct-dial savings [telecom]

Aug 10, 2017 1 Replies
History - 1971 - highway call boxes, direct-dial savings [telecom] open original image

A Bell System advertisement in the July 9, 1971 LIFE magazine describes emergency call boxes being installed on a remote stretch of I-80.



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(two pages)



(I don't know if they're still there.)



Also in 1971, Bell announced discounts for dialed-direct long distance calls, and at certain times, a one-minute minimum time instead of three minutes. If direct-dialing was not available, discounted rates still applied to basic operator calls.



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(two pages)


The Northway (I-87 north of Albany) was built with these callboxes in the mid-late 1960s. They are long gone, but I don't know when they were taken out of service.

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