Automatic message accounting

The need to record the time and phone number of each long-distance call was met by electromechanical data processing equipment.

The Class 4 office recorded this information with punched tape machines on long strips of paper, that had approximately the width of a hand.

Each day a technician cut the paper tapes and sent them to the accounting center to be read and processed to generate customer telephone bills.

Around the same time period, the billing AMA format (BAF) was developed to support the full range of local exchange carrier services.

BAF is now the preferred format for all AMA data generated for processing by a LEC Revenue Accounting Office (RAO).

The BAFAG uses the GR-1100 (Billing Automatic Message Accounting Format, BAF) specification to record call history.

Every month a worker read and recorded the indicated number of message units, similar to the accounting of a gas meter.

In the middle of the 20th century it became customary to photograph the meters, about a hundred per film frame, for examination in comfort.