In another thread Pat mentioned FX lines. As mentioned, these were
used to save on long distance changes -- customers would make a local
call to a distant business and the business could call its customers
for the cost of a local call. This service was not cheap.
At a resort I visited that had FX lines to a city 75 miles away, the
switchboard had special heavy cord pairs. Extensions authorized for
FX had a second jack underneath in which the heavy cord was inserted.
I heard FX lines used higher voltage thus the heavy cords. I don't
know what kind of special wiring, if any, was in the telephone sets.
I would guess WATS and long distance packages has made most FX lines
obsolete. There was toll free before 800 numbers but it was manual
and a local number added a comfort factor. Obviously today a
business's 800 number is more convenient for anyone. Further,
businesses have outward long distance packages so the cost of paying
for an FX trunk (that only worked in a specific city) couldn't be
justified.
But there is another type of "FX" service that seems not to have gone
away even though the need has. Philadelphia has a local city zone and
message units for more distant suburban calls. Many suburban
businesses had a city phone number for the same reason companies had
FX lines. Even some suburban homeowners who made a lot of city calls
had a second line with a city number. AFAIK, many suburban businesses
still maintain their existing city phone numbers even though today the
need isn't as much.
(The following is the economic analyis for those interested).
The message unit charge has been 7c for at least the last 40 years.
Now 7c 40 years ago was like 50c today and say a monthly usage of 100
units comes to some serious money in today's terms (equivalent of $50)
while today it's $7 which isn't a big deal. Further, Verizon has
increased local calling area sizes and reduced zone charges. My guess
is today it probably costs a business far more to maintain the city
line than whatever they save in message units, and customers don't
give making a suburban call a second thought today.
In looking through the yellow pages I noticed many businesses had
multiple numbers. However, for some time Verizon offers remote
forwarding -- that is you get a local number but it really isn't a
line -- it just forwards calls to your actual number. That's more to
imply a business has a local presence than to save customers toll
charges.
I guess that businesses maintaining a distant line never gave it any
thought and just pay for it month after month. A few businesses had
Enterprise service they kept as well until that was finally
discontinued a few years ago (at least such numbers are gone from the
city phone books).
My own employer used tie lines in distant places to save on toll
charges 25 years ago. But now they have more modern bulk purchase
toll service arrangements, all done automatically. We once dialed
various codes, but now just dial 9+ for all outside calls.
