[AmVess]

Not vanished, but close. Telephone operators.

I worked at a company that had an entire floor of telephone operators. Now they have none. I wouldn't be surprised if they are all gone from this company in the entire USA.

On site techs? Also all gone. Replaced by commodity equipment and installed by people making $12 an hour.

[majewsky]

You still had telephone operators 10 or 20 years ago?

The earliest telephone backbones that didn't require operators anymore are from the 1920s. Operators were still used for international calls, but definitely not after ~1990.

Source: There is a telecommunications museum across the street from my workplace.