[Turing_Machine]

IIRC, the pricing model was something like this:

1) The customer paid a fixed monthly charge for having phone service at all. This covered the capital costs of the wiring to the customer's premises. 2) On top of that, the customer paid a per-call fee. This covered the cost of having a woman (usually) ask what number you wanted, locate the proper jack, and physically plug your circuit in to the circuit of the person you wanted to reach.

It's probably no coincidence that the local service operator was one of the first parts of the phone system to be automated away (nor is it surprising that phone companies continued the per-call charge long after its justification went away :-)).