Known in the industry as a DSS/BLF Adjunct, this device is most commonly used by a receptionist as an extension to a business phone, replacing a switchboard.

Pressing one of the 50 programmable buttons on the attendant console normally does a direct station select (DSS) for one-touch dialing or call transfer. When a station on the network is in use, a busy lamp field (BLF) LED turns on showing the line's status. A receptionist routinely uses the line access buttons to ring a phone if it is free, or to route a caller to your voice mail if the BLF lamp shows your phone is in use.

The five rows of 10 line access buttons are programmable through NetSet, similar in function to the twelve you will find along the right margin of the NBX business phone. A SHIFT key in the lower left corner of the console effectively doubles the number of buttons from 50 to 100.

You can program the DSS/BLF Attendant Console so that pressing the SHIFT key shows if the owner of an access button has messages waiting. This enables the DSS/BLF Attendant Console to function as a giant message board for a sales or service organization where staff routinely call in for messages while out of the office. This MSG function also works for group mailboxes, phantom mailboxes and standard extension mailboxes. Waiting messages can also be accessed from a remote telephone by calling the voice mail extension, pressing the H button, and entering your password.

A headset can be plugged into the handset port on either the NBX business phone or the Attendant Console, so the receptionist can handle calls using earphones and a microphone instead of a handset. When using the phone in this way, the bottom oval programmable button on the phone is used as a Release button to terminate calls.
Up to five Attendant Consoles can be daisy chained together to create a "switchboard" at the receptionist's station.