Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Memories of SxS Message-ID: Date: 16 Sep 89 22:25:54 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 39 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 380, message 5 of 5 > [Moderator's Note: Well, he may have meant SxS is the rule rather than > the exception, and that may be what you meant, but around here it is > not only an exception, it is a rarity. Illinois Bell has been almost > 100 percent ESS for about three years. It is very rare to dial > anywhere in northern Illinois -- within IBT territory -- and hear the > ringing and clattering associated with the older type exchanges. PT] Not so in California. If you travel anywhere outside of any hard-core metro area, you will find old-timey CO equipment being operated by Pac*Bell. Even in the metro areas, crossbar is still the order of the day. San Jose, California's third largest city, *still* has about twenty prefixes served by #5 crossbar, and quite a few prefixes served by ESS offices running an obsolete generic. In the nearby Santa Cruz mountains they are running SXS as they are in many other areas of the state. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! [Moderator's Note: Years ago people were saying how very progressive Illinois Bell was, relative to her sisters. I think it was true. We were among the first places to be equipped with 911; we had centrex service in several large organizations (Chicago Tribune, City of Chicago, and Amoco Credit Card, to name just three) in the middle 1960's -- on crossbar yet, as was our first 911; our downtown and near north side were ESS as of 1973-74; and over a nine year period Chicago was completely converted to ESS. We in the outlying areas finally cut over about 1984. Historical trivia: The City of Chicago offices operated on a seven position cord board (RAndolph 6-8000) for fifty years. Police emergency was translated by each CO from POlice 5-1313 to some other number at police HQ. The police administrative number was WAbash 2-4747. In about 1963 when all city offices were scheduled for cutover to centrex, some wit at telco who was a bit of a radical in the radical 1960's when police were unkindly referred to as 'pigs' said people should dial P-I-G to reach them. It so happens the 744 prefix was *not* in use, and as a lark, that person maneuvered to have that prefix assigned to the new City of Chicago centrex. So now to reach the main number for City Hall, we can dial 312-PIG-4000. Or to reach any certain police officer, dial PIG and the desired four digit extension. :) PT]