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From: DJB@scri1.scri.fsu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: What is a "Cable Address"?
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Date: 15 Aug 90 03:17:39 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 573, Message 8 of 12


Thanks for the interesting articles on TELEX/TWX in the past few
weeks.  Can anyone explain what a "cable address" is?  For example,
the cable address for the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corp. is
"Broadcasts."  If I wanted to send a cable to them, how would I do it,
how would it get there, what would they receive it on, what role does
the address play, who keeps track of the address, etc.


Davie Brightbill


[Moderator's Note: Cable addresses are nothing more than shorthand for
the entire telex address. They were devised many years ago by Western
Union as a sort of precurser to what we call 'speed dial' today, or
'abbreviated dialing'. Except, you really did not dial anything. You
merely passed the cable address to the Western Union agent/operator,
who had a lookup table of addresses versus telex numbers. They were
used as advertising gimmicks, and ways to easily remember long
numbers. Although 'cablegrams' were sent out of the United States and
'telegrams' were sent domestically, they were the same difference, and
anyone could have a 'cable address' if they paid Western Union to list
it in their tables of same. 'Cable addresses' tended toward to be
easy to remember words and phrases. A few I remember still were
'University' (for the U of Chicago); 'Beacon Hill' (I forget who owned
it); 'TribTower' (Chicago Tribune); and 'Symphony' (The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra). This was all 1950/60-ish stuff. I did not know they were
still making them available. I guess any telex carrier can do it.  In
your example, you would call Western Union and tell the operator to
send a message to the cable address "Broadcasts". That is, *IF* s/he
even knows what you are talking about! :)  PAT]