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Miscellaneous
This page contains material that either does not
warrant a page by itself, or does not fit into other existing pages based on
topic, or we just haven't had the time or seen the need to expand the topic to
it's own page yet. Enjoy!
AT&T equipment survived trade center collapse PHILADELPHIA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - AT&T Corp.
(NYSE:T -
news),
the No. 1 U.S. long-distance telephone and cable television company, said its
communications network carried a flood of heavy calling volume on Wednesday, but
remained unharmed after its equipment survived the collapse of the World Trade
Center.
Calling volume on ``the network is running about
about 20 percent above a typical Wednesday morning,'' AT&T spokesman Dave
Johnson said. ``There's heavy inbound surge to the New York and Washington areas
and some network congestion, but nothing like yesterday.''
AT&T handles about 300 million voice
telephone calls a day. It carried 431 million calls on Tuesday as customers
flooded the telephone lines in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center
and Pentagon, making it the heaviest business day in the company's network
history, Johnson said.
AT&T's local network switching equipment,
which routes telephone calls, was located in the basement of the World Trade
Center towers and survived the implosion of the buildings, Johnson said.
"It appears the equipment has survived ... It
was up and alive and still providing dial tone by 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Once the back-up batteries ran out, we took them offline, but the equipment is
still working,'' Johnson said.
"We were amazed,'' he said. ``It was several
stories under ground and all I can say is that they must have built up that
basement very sturdy.''
The switching equipment handled calls for
AT&T business customers in Lower Manhattan. The company rerouted calls and
suffered no network outages, Johnson said.
AT&T will retrieve the equipment once it gets
approval from New York City and disaster teams to approach the rubble of the
World Trade Center. The New York-based company said none of its employees were
injured or killed in the attacks.
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CONTENTS
Mural
photos on a Central Office in Northern California. A big thanks to
Shelly Dildey of
Lionakis Beaumont Design Group, Inc. for
sending these photos for my web site:
Mural 02
Mural 11
Mural 12
Mural 13
Mural 14
Mural 15
Mural 16
Handwritten notice of disruption of service
This PDF file shows the requirement that
the telephone companies file a disruption of
service notice when a major event occurs. More info will be posted on this
if and when it becomes available.
--
Tom Farley -- Original telecom writing
http://www.telecomwriting.com
215 19th Street
West Sacramento, California USA
(916) 371-4442 Voice (707) 220-1011 FAX
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CONTENTS
The Bell System and the WWW and Cold War
days
Most of us that lived during the cold war days and are
familiar with the fact that Bell Labs, AT&T and Western Electric contributed
to the technical aspects of the cold war will find the following very
interesting:
DEW Line web page on this site
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CONTENTS
The Bell System and the World
War II
days
There are not
many of us left who remember the WWII days, but the Bell System played a vital
role in the war effort. From research & development, manufacturing,
personnel and communications, the Bell System and its structure was every bit a
part of our national defense as the War Department (Department of Defense).
The Bell System published War Update or "Reports". We have two listed here
on our site in .pdf form, and contain some interesting historical information on
the war effort.
- RETURN TO TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Complete List of Global Phone Companies
Most of us that lived during the cold war days and are
familiar with the fact that Bell Labs, AT&T and Western Electric contributed
to the technical aspects of the cold war will find the following very
interesting:
Telecom Companies web page on this site
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CONTENTS
AT&T Mobility Tower Strategy
Portal - Tower Operations
Verizon Wireless Network Real
Estate Inquiries Portal - Tower Operations
"This is a recording . . ."
Ever wonder how the Bell System played those recorded
message on you phone when you dial a wrong number or a number no longer in
service? Well, wonder no more! Click
HERE
to read an article on the Automatic intercept service machine found in an old Bell Laboratories Record magazine.
Also, check out the Bell System Recorded Announcements
(SIT Tones). Click
HERE.
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CONTENTS
Aging Plastic
Here's an article from an old Bell Laboratories Record magazine
on testing plastics for aging problems. Click
HERE to read it.
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CONTENTS
The Bell
System Pavilion of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Here are some sample
multimedia segments from
the film "Calling Century 21". The entire film is available on the
Bell System Multimedia disc:
-
Solar Battery
- Developed by Bell Laboratories, the solar battery (a.k.a., photovoltaic or
solar cell) generates electric power from sunlight.
-
Direct Distance Dialing
- No longer will you need an operator to connect you to a long distance number;
you can dial it yourself.
The
Bell System Pavilion of the 1964-65 New York
World's Fair
The '64 - '65 New
York World's Fair was the second time in just a couple of years that the
Bell System had a pavilion in a World's Fair; the other was in Seattle,
Washington in 1962.
The Bell System press release descriptions and
photos of the Bell System pavilion of the New York World's Fair was made
available to this web site by Rob Hallam. A big thanks to Rob for taking
the time to scan the images and copy the text descriptions for this web page!
To view the
various scans, click on the thumbnail images below:
Cover |
Pavilion Photo |
Marine Cable Exhibit |
Chair Ride |
Touch-Tone Phone
Booths |
Artificial Larynx |
Descriptions of
the scans above (left to right, top to bottom) follow:
-
Press release
cover page
-
Photograph of
the Bell System Pavilion. "The Bell System floating wing ---
400 feet long, 200 feet wide, 87 feet high --- is composed of two major
elements; a chair ride and a series of live demonstrations,
displays, and audience participation games. The ride tells the story
of communication from bongo drums to satellites.
-
"Bell System Hostess Rita Smith points to a model of a Cable Ship Long Lines whose job is to lay submarine cable along the ocean bottoms of
the world. Right now she is in the Pacific Placing 5,600 miles of it from Hawaii to Japan. This cable can carry 128 conversations at one time --- about three times as many as the first one placed in 1956. This was brought about by an electronic development called TASI which is demonstrated at this exhibit."
-
"One of the major elements of the Bell System exhibit is a chair ride, which tells the story of communications from bongo drums to satellites. The theatrical techniques include three dimensional stage settings, front and rear projection of still and motion pictures, narrative and original music by Morton Gould. In this scene, man discovers the magic of
written symbols."
-
The Serpentine booth is one of the Bell System innovations at the New York Worlds Fair. It features a Touch-Tone phone in each wavy coil [booth]. The model is Bell System Hostess Joan
Solimine.
-
"Bell System Hostess Laura Farrell demonstrates use of Artificial Larynx. It was invented by the Bell Telephone Laboratories to provide a voice for those who have lost the use of their vocal cords."
Several text
documents for the press release were included. To read the six
documents, click on the links here:
A color
postcard of the Bell System Pavilion can be seen by clicking
HERE.
In addition to the
above donation of photos and documents by Rob Hallam, I also was given the
following audio track from the chair ride of the Bell System pavilion for this
web page by Ray Dashner. A big thanks to Ray for allowing me to include the Bell Telephone portion of his 5+ hour audio tape (recorded on
VHS tape) of the various exhibit rides of the 1964-65 New York World's
Fair. The audio file is about 14.5 minutes long.
You may order the
entire 1964/1965 New York World's Fair Audio Archive tape (©
2000 Raymond
Dashner) directly from him. Please write him for ordering info or more
details on his tape. His email address is
[email protected],
his mailing address is:
Ray Dashner
866 S. Arroyo Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91105-2860
For some scans of the World's Fair
pamphlets showing the Bell System exhibit, click on the following three links:
and at
nywf64.com. nywf64.com is proud to be the host
website for the New York State Pavilion Air & Space Museum - Flushing
Meadows-Corona Park - Queens, NY
See this exciting world-class Museum proposal at
http://www.nywf64.com
AT&T van parked in our driveway:
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Click on image above to enlarge |
CLOSE-UP PHOTO:
Click on image above to enlarge |
Party
Lines in the U.S.A.
- a blast from the past!
July 6, 1999
Courtesy of
CLAUDE STERLING
WHY PARTY LINES
In the early days of the telephone in the US,
telephone circuits consisted of one wire
with a ground return. Circuits were few and there
was little interference from electric power
distribution. As demand for telephone
service increased in urban areas, it was necessary to migrate
to “full metallic” i.e. two wire lines. Multi-pair
telephone cable had not been developed,
hence each line required crossarm space for two pins
and insulators. In high density urban areas there
was a limit to the number of crossarms that
could be places on a given pole.
In rural areas, great distances between farms
became a barrier to economic pole line
“open wire” construction. Many rural or “farmer”
lines were constructed by the farmers themselves.
Sometimes the lines consisted of a single
wire attached by a porcelain knob to a two by four
nailed to a fence post.
Given the above economic and physical barriers,
party lines became a feasible solution to
providing service to all who needed it.
CODED RINGING
In the early days of party line service, the
ringers on all telephones were “bridged”
across the telephone line or in the case of one wire
service connected line to ground. Whenever there
was ringing current presented either by the
operator or by a subscriber turning the magneto
on his telephone, all telephones on the line would
ring. In order to differentiate what party
the call was for, a system of coded rings was
developed, usually a combination of long and short
rings.
Example: Telephone number 46F31, in this case,
the “F” indicates “Farmer Line”, the 46 is
Farmer Line 46 and the 31 is the ring code - three long
rings and one short ring.
Other schemes were used where the last digit of
the phone number denoted the ring code,
last digit 1 denoted one long ring, 2 denoted 2 rings - -
- up to five and then 6 would be one long and one
short, 7 one long and two shorts etc.
Rural lines frequently had as many as 20
parties and the telephone was ringing all
of the time. A means of reducing the number of rings heard
by a party was desirable. In those days the
concept of everyone having a one party line
was unthinkable!
RINGING SCHEMES
Several methods were developed both by the Bell
System and the Independent Companies to
reduce the number of rings heard by a given
subscriber. At this point we probably need to take a look at some
definitions. Going back to basics, the telephone
circuit in its simplest form consists of
two wires, i.e. “tip” and “ring”. This
terminology originates from the plug on the operators cord which has a
tip contact and a ring contact.
TIP - Usually the green lead in the line
cord.
RING - Usually the red lead in the line cord.
GROUND - The yellow lead in the line cord which
is/or was connected to the ground point
at the protector where the telephone line comes in to
the building. In the central office, this lead
may be refereed to as the “sleeve lead”
again from the sleeve of the operators cord.
BRIDGED RINGING - All ringers on the line are
“bridged” or connected across the tip and
ring leads of the line, hence they all ring at the
same time and every party hears all rings.
Since there was usually some form of lightning
protection at the premises, usually carbon
blocks with an air gap to the ground rod, a
ground connection was readily available at the customer premise. Since
ringing current is not readily affected by stray
noise sometimes present on a ground return,
the ground (or earthing electrode for you good folks
in the UK) can be utilized as a return path to the
central office.
SELECTIVE RINGING - By utilizing the ground
return, several methods are available for
reducing the number of rings heard by any given
subscriber.
FULL-SELECTIVE RINGING - Regardless of the
number of parties on a given line, an
individual subscriber hears only his own ring.
SEMI-SELECTIVE RINGING - Each party hears only
half of the rings on a given line.
DIVIDED RINGING - Half of the ringers on the
line are connected tip to ground and half
ring to ground. In this manner, any given party only
hears half of the rings on the line. In the case
of a two party line, each party hears only
his own ring (Full selective ringing). In the
case of four or eight (or more) parties, a
subscriber hears half of the rings on the
line (semi-selective ringing).
Up to this point, things are pretty simple, a
single telephone set can be used for any
application. From here on, the stocking of sets becomes
a bit more complicated.
SUPERIMPOSED RINGING - Here, 20 Cycle ringing
current is superimposed over a DC bias,
either negative or positive. With this arrangement,
four party service can be Full Selective and eight
party service Semi-Selective. This arrangement requires either a relay or gas
tube in each telephone to detect the DC
bias and respond appropriately. It is
necessary to use a special set with the gas tube and each set must be
configured on site for the particular party code.
Superimposed ringing was widely used in the
Bell System.
(+) Bias, Tip to ground
(-) Bias, Tip to ground
(+) Bias, Ring to ground
(-) Bias, Ring to ground
FREQUENCY RINGING - (See Ralph Myers book page
48) Uses five different ringing frequencies
hence five types of ringers. This makes stocking of
sets a little more complicated. With Bridged
Ringing, 5 parties can be Full Selective,
with bridged ringing, 10 parties can be Full Selective
and with Superimposed Ringing, 20 party Full
Selective Service can be achieved.
Stromberg Carlson in the XY switch did indeed accommodate 20
party full selective service. Frequency ringing
was rarely used by the Bell System but it
was widely used by the Independents phone companies.
HARMONIC RINGING - the most common form of
Frequency Ringing where the ringers were
tuned to 16 /23, 33 1/3, 50, and 66 2/3 cycles per second.
Since these are true harmonic frequencies, false
ringing became a problem in some cases. AE
solved this by using “non-harmonic”
frequencies of 16, 30, 42, 54 and 66 cycles per second. I think Gary
Goff mentioned having an AE40 with a 54 cycle
ringer in Southern California. Another
variant was “Decimonic Ringing” utilizing 20, 30,
40 50 and 60 cycle ringers. With the advent of
more sophisticated electronics, these
frequencies could easily be derived from the
commercial 60 cycle commercial power.
This may be like asking for the time and
getting a response of how the clock works
but in essence this is why most WE sets have straight line
ringers and many AE, SC, North and Kellogg sets
have “tuned” ringers.
NANP Discussion 2003 Document -
"Understanding the North American Numbering Plan"
An interesting document
contributed to this website by David H. Bench, NCE. He has been in the
telephone business for 38 years. He worked for New York Telephone, Continental
Telephone, Alltel, Starnet Long Distance and for the last 16 years, Nortel
Networks (Northern Telecom, Northern Electric). He is presently involved in
industry standards (or lack of). He participates in the forums associated with
the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. David also sits on an
FCC Advisory Council called the North American Numbering Council (NANC).
Here is the document he recently released as a contribution to the NANC and
emailed me to put on my website:
NANP Discussion 2003 Document
David H. Bench, NCE
NØRTEL
NETWORKS(tm)
Senior Standards
Leader - External
Advanced Technology -
Strategic Standards
(919-991-7362(ESN
351) - RTP Office
(919-469-3262(ESN
455) - Home Office
*
[email protected]
A famous New York Telephone phone
book cover was scanned and sent to me from Remco Enthoven of the
Netherlands. To view a larger image, click on the thumbnail
size images below.
Scans from "The Birth and Babyhood of
The Telephone", published by the Bell System, April 1976:
Scans from "Legacy and Promise - The
Story of Southern Bell" by Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company
Central Office Photographs (Courtesy of Steff Kerman)
A big thanks to Paul Wills for the following photo and description!
A
photograph of
his Western Electric Number 5 Toll Test Board. It is what got him started. It came
from the Pennsylvania Railroad 30th. St. Station in Philadelphia. It was installed around
1935 and retired in 1981.
It was used to test and monitor the railroad telephone
facilities originating out of Philadelphia. Similar installations were also found in the
other major cities served by the PRR. The three main positions are:
It's a spectacular piece of equipment!
Last OKC 5ESS Shipped 10/3/03
Thought some of your former WE/AT&T/Lucent folks (plus a few SBC people)
might want to see this picture. They got everyone together today to take a picture
by what they think will be the LAST #5ESS Switch Module to ship out of the
OKC
factory.
What a sad day. A few people didn't show up for the picture, but you can
tell
there are not a lot left out of the 4500 we used to have. They terminated
more
shop people today, not sure, I saw the list but I would guess 30-50.
They won't move the last production out until approx. the end of November is
the best guess. If we were running full speed ahead right now, as we normally
did this time of year, I don't know how we could possibly be doing this
transfer.
Submitted by
Robert
Mohalley
Directory Assistance Charging
[Sept./Oct. 1974 - Bell Telephone
Magazine]
Business Week headlined it: "An End to Free Phone
Information." A TV news broadcast in New York said: "Here's the wave of the
future, maybe. The telephone company in Cincinnati is going to start charging
its customers 20 cents each time they call information and ask for a phone
number. Then after you get it, of course, you'll still have to pay to call it.
Well, this splendid little development will bring Cincinnati Bell an additional
$14 million a year ..." An editorial in a California paper began: "The free use
of the service goes back to the beginning of the telephone itself..."
All three statements are incorrect -the TV newscast grossly
so-and all three share a common misunderstanding about what, for some years now,
has been called Directory Assistance. The truth is that DA is not now and never
has been a "free" service. The money required to provide it comes out of general
revenues in all the telephone companies, and so is built into the rate base as a
portion of each customer's basic service charge. All customers have always paid
for Directory Assistance, whether they used it frequently, occasionally or not
at all.
In March of this year, Cincinnati Bell became the first
telephone company to change the payment system for Directory Assistance service.
Cincinnati's action was prompted by a significant change in calling habits that
is nationwide in scope. Calls to DA in recent years have been growing much
faster than the increase in customers; the sheer volume of such calls has been
doubling about every 10 years and the cost of handling them has multiplied three
to four times per decade.
If this trend continues, use of DA service could
easily double by 1980, raising today's annual cost of almost $400 million to
over $1 billion. The total of almost five billion DA calls in 1972 was an
increase of 93 per cent over the 1962 figure; if this growth rate is not
curtailed, Directory Assistance will be handling some 10 billion calls a year by
the end of this decade. The operator force dedicated to the service would have
to grow from the present 40,000 to 66,000 to handle the increased volume.
Because this shape of things to come has been evident for several years, the
idea of charging for DA service on a per call basis is not new -it was being
proposed at AT&T in 1970. A major consideration commending such a change was a
trend in DA usage patterns revealed by studies made in several associated
companies. The primary finding could fairly be described as an instance of the
tail wagging the dog: on a System average, only 10 to 15 per cent of all
customers were making half the calls to Directory Assistance. Since these calls
did not appear on any telephone bill as separate, identifiable charges, these
busy callers paid no more for the service than did other customers who used it
rarely or not at all.
Pay as you go
The principle of charging for DA calls on a
fair-share-of-usage basis has seemed an equitable way of lowering costs of the
service by asking those who use it most to pay as they go, while exempting light
users and nonusers. But this principle has advantages beyond equity of usage:
operator wages and the formidable expenses of recruiting and training are the
largest components in the mounting cost of DA service. A significant drop in DA
traffic was anticipated once charging went into effect, thereby permitting a
gradual reduction in operator forces. Experience in Cincinnati Bell shows that
calling volume has actually dropped far below the level originally estimated.
The company had expected that 18 per cent of its customers would be billed for
their use of the service under the new system. To date, however, only 5 per cent
are finding charges for DA calls on their bills; the other 95 per cent are not
asking Directory Assistance for more than three numbers per month.
The key: cost
savings
This allowance is a basic element of the Cincinnati plan and will
probably be an essential feature of all future plans filed by Bell System
companies. The Cincinnati plan permits three DA calls per line per month without
charge; additional calls to the service are billed at 20 cents each. There are
exceptions: customers unable to use the directory because of visual or other
physical handicaps are exempted, as are those seeking numbers from coin phones,
hospitals, hotels or motels. The three-call allowance was determined after DA
usage studies showed it would accommodate the vast majority of Cincinnati Bell
customers seeking help for new listings or for numbers not in their local
directories.
Revenue from billing for DA service was a factor in developing the
plan, but its contribution to earnings was predicated also on cost savings. In
August of last year, the Public Utilities commission of Ohio granted Cincinnati
Bell an annual revenue increase of $14.1 million (the source of the misstatement
in the TV newscast quoted earlier). Part of the amount-$1.4 million was to come
from the DA charging plan.
In fact, the company billed customers about $24,000
per month for DA calls beyond the three-call allowance through June-an amount
equal to about 17 per cent of the anticipated monthly revenue.
However, savings
in the cost of providing DA service have exceeded the original estimates, thus
helping to offset the difference between anticipated and actual revenues. These
savings have come through reduction of the operator force. The number of DA
operators in Cincinnati's territory dropped from 312 in January to 212 in
August. In January, DA operators were handling an average of 65,000 local calls
per business day; this shrank to about 14,800 per day the first week after
charging started and has averaged about 16,500 a day through July. There were no
layoffs, however: the operator force was reduced through normal attrition,
transfers to other jobs and promotions.
Cincinnati will continue to evaluate the
plan during coming months. Meanwhile, says general traffic manager William Galle,
"It is apparent that Directory Assistance charging does what it was designed to
do-reduce the number of calls to Directory Assistance and place the burden of
payment with those who use the service the most."
Before committing itself to
the new system of charging for DA calls, Cincinnati, as have other Bell
companies, tried a variety of programs to control the rising volume of DA
traffic. Advertising campaigns exhorting people to "look in the directory
first," improvements in phone directories making them easier to use, personal
directories given to customers to record frequently called numbers, out-of town
directories provided free of charge-all produced only limited success and
certainly did not solve the problem.
That the solution to the problem -which
affects the whole telephone industry, Bell and Independent companies alike-lies
in the new direction taken by Cincinnati Bell seems beyond question. Other
companies have already joined in implementing the principle. The New York Public
Service Commission has given New York Telephone permission to institute a DA
charging plan similar in substance to Cincinnati's. The main differences are in
the rate for calls beyond a three-call allowance: 10 cents rather than 20, and
the addition of a 30-cent credit to each customer's bill. The net effect of this
provision allows the customer to make six DA calls-three on the allowance and
three more that reduce the credit by 10 cents eachbefore any additional DA
charges appear on the bill. It will be about a year and a half before the plan
can be put into effect, since automatic recording and billing equipment must be
installed first.
Toward usage-sensitive pricing
Also joining the move toward
Directory Assistance charging is Southern Bell, with filings in Georgia and
North Carolina. Wisconsin Telephone's and New Jersey Bell's recent filings with
their commissions include a DA charging provision like that in Cincinnati. These
filings typify a definite future; AT&Ts Chairman of the Board John deButts has
stated that it is now Bell System policy to charge for Directory Assistance
service throughout Bell territory.
Some Independent telephone companies also
have been considering DA charging plans and these may involve varying degrees of
Bell- Independent coordination. Application of a DA charging plan similar to
Bell's may reduce the Independent's traffic volumes, even though some of their
equipment used for the service functions differently from Bell's.
Since actual
operating experience with the new concept extends over only a few months in one
company, there are some rough spots yet to be smoothed out. For example, the
trend in rate-making is definitely toward usage-sensitive pricing-improving
earnings and holding down capital requirements by encouraging use of less costly
services while reducing use of much more costly ones, such as DA.
There is also
the distinct possibility that spreading application of Directory Assistance
charging may significantly affect the distribution and content of telephone
directories.
Inevitably, there will be differences among DA plans, varying
according to local conditions in the various companies. Commissions must be
dealt with; public understanding must be enlisted; equipment for mechanized
billing (if needed) must be installed.
Local variations are sure to develop, but
the underlying principle will remain the same as more DA charging plans are
introduced. And surveys have shown that employees -whose understanding must also
be enlisted-approve of the principle. They feel that charging on a per call
basis, after an allowance, would put the burden of paying where it properly
belongs-on the frequent user; that a charge would probably be an effective way
of getting people to t_se directories, or at least to think twice before calling
DA; and that a charge would either reduce call volumes and related expenses by
deterring unnecessary requests, or that it would generate sufficient revenue to
offset a portion of the costs and thereby postpone a general rate increase
needed in part to cover rising DA expenses.
They dial DA every time
There is
evidence that part of the public also appreciates the logic of the System
position. An editorial in the Register-Pajornian in Watsonville, California
(quoted in part here at the outset) goes on to say: "The idea has merit, we
feel, if information service is being misused by callers. And there's every
indication of this, especially in some households and business firms where it's
common practice to dial Directory Assistance to get a number rather than looking
it up in the phone book. Obviously there's no way for Pacific Telephone to
distinguish between legitimate calls for information and those made by people
too lazy to reach for the phone directory... In any event, the phone company is
a public utility, and if it has to hire armies of information operators because
part of the populace can't be bothered to use the telephone directory, we're all
going to get stuck for the bill. Imposition of a charge, we think, would
drastically cut the abuses of information service, releasing funds for other
purposes. It might even hold the rate increases down."
In light of experience and of future plans, Bell people would
be inclined to agree with the editor.
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