One story says it was first used during the early days of the telephone to tell an operator that a message had been received.

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Should all those elevator operator, telephone operator, and bank teller jobs have been saved?

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And eventually, a telephone operator -- a telegraph operator sent out a simple message to the cheers of a waiting nation.

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Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile-telephone operator, recently pointed a finger at Spain when it issued a 2008 profit warning.

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