AT&T; Retrains Operators: American Telephone & Telegraph,...

AT&T; Retrains Operators: American Telephone & Telegraph, whose long-distance telephone service broke down last week, said its operators next time will be prepared to help connect customers with a competitor’s service. At the outset of the disruption, AT&T; operators offered no such help “because we did not have adequate procedures in place,” said Chairman Robert E. Allen. But Allen dismissed as “unrealistic” a previously reported proposal for a formal interconnection arrangement among competitors to switch over customers when one experiences a serious outage.