VeriZon/C&P to Retire/Replace One of Its Three Remaining 1AESS Switches
Over the past few years, the at&t-ILEC website of network/technical disclosures has indicated several of its remaining 1AESS switches being replaced with digital or packet switches. But there are still several remaining 1As of at&t-ILEC, including four of Ameritech (two in Michigan Bell, two in Illinois Bell in Chicago), several of BellSouth (both Southern Bell in the Atlanta GA metro area and in Florida -- both Jacksonville and southeast FL, and South Central Bell with one in Nashville TN, a few in Birmingham AL, two in Shreveport LA and the two switches here in Lafayette LA), and several of Southwestern Bell (in the St.Louis MO area, and also scattered about Texas. There are _NO_ more 1AESS switches remaining of at&t/Pacific Bell (California) or Nevada Bell, nor any other states of Ameritech (other than the two each in Illinois and Michigan). at&t/SNET in Connecticut also has no remaining 1AESS offices.
Qwest/US-West (now part of CenturyLink) retired its last 1AESS almost ten years ago.
Cincinnati Bell has no remaining 1As.
Bell Canada actually did have small handful of Northern Electric licensed 1ESS offices in the late 1960s in the Montreal PQ and Toronto ON area. But Canada really went with Northern's SP-1 development until the Northern Telecom DMS line of digital switches became popular. As far as I know, all SP(x) switches in Canada (and the US) have been replaced with digital (or packet) switches.
And in addition to the remaining 1As of at&t-ILEC (Michigan Bell, Illinois Bell, Southwestern Bell, South Central Bell, Southern Bell), VeriZon still has three remaining 1As. All three are in Bell Atlantic C&P territory. There are no remaining VZ-owned 1As in any legacy NYNEX BOCs nor in any other Bell Atlantic BOCs. And when VeriZon sold off NET&T ME/NH/VT to FairPoint in 2007/08, and C&P-West Virginia to Frontier in 2009/10, there were no remaining 1As in those states.
VeriZon/ Bell Atlantic/ C&P-Virginia still has ONE remaining 1A in Richmond VA, and ONE remaining 1A in Norfolk VA.
AND... VZ/BA/C&P has ONE remaining 1AESS in Baltimore MD, which is scheduled to be retired during 4Q/2011 (later this year).
Yesterday, Friday 01-April-2011, VeriZon released a new "Network Disclosure" (ND11-0026, and dated the same date), indicating that their legacy C&P-Md. "Edmondson Ave" 1AESS c.o.switch in Baltimore MD, BLTMMDEDCG0 will be retired and replaced around 01-October-2011.
Also, I was curious about Baltimore MD customers being served out of a switch in Annapolis MD. There is _NO_ (basic) local/EAS between the two ratecenters. And Annapolis MD is about as far away from Baltimore MD as both Annapolis MD and Baltimore MD are each located from Washington DC! The document states that "traffic" for Baltimore's "Edmondson Avenue" 1A will need to be migrated to this (packet) switch in Annapolis MD (ANNPMDANPS0). But with a "packet" switch or "soft-switch", one could be served for dial-tone purposes from a c.o.switch much further away than with previous technologies.
Anyhow, the document does finally reference a "remote" packet switch CLLI associated with Baltimore "Edmondson Ave", BLTMMDEDRP0, which does seem like it could be the actual new packet switch that will takeover actual provision of dial-tone to customers previously served by the Baltimore "Edmondson Avenue" 1AESS (BLTMMDEDCG0).
The (legacy/default) 410-NXX codes associated with Baltimore MD's "Edmondson Avenue" central office include:
410-233, 410-362, 410-566, 410-624, 410-945, 410-947 (NOTE that ALL of Maryland was originally NPA 301, until the 301/410 split of 1991/92; and then 443 overlaid 410 in 1997)Of course, individual customers with these 410-NXX codes could have ported out of VZ' Edmondson Avenue switch to a CLEC or wireless provider, or customers in the vicinity served by VZ' Edmondson Avenue switch could have ported AWAY from other CLECs to VeriZon (C&P) and are now served out of VZ' Edmondson Ave have but have different
410-NXX codes (or even 443-NXX codes) which were originally assigned to them by the CLEC that those customers were originally served by.I don't know the history of "Edmonson Avenue", but Baltimore MD was originally a Panel/#1XB metro area when it first went dial, adding #5XB (and then 1/1AESS) in later years.
The other two remaining 1AESS switches of VZ/BA/C&P (Virginia) are:
RCMDVAHLCG0, Richmond VA "Hull Street"
804-230, 804-231, 804-232, 804-233, 804-291, 804-319 (legacy/default) (NOTE that ALL of Virginia was originally NPA 703, until the 703/804 split of 1973)NRFLVAGSCG0, Norfolk VA (Zone 02), "Granby Street"
757-480, 757-531, 757-583, 757-587, 757-588 (legacy/default) (NOTE that ALL of Virginia was originally NPA 703, until the 703/804 split of 1973; and then there was the 804/757 split of 1996/97)Again, I don't know the history of Richmond VA "Hull Street" nor Norfolk VA "Granby Street", but neither of these towns ever had any Panel/#1XB. Both started off their dial service with SXS, adding #5XB (and then 1/1AESS) in later years. Richmond VA did have a "BEacon" exchange name back in the old days, but I don't know if this was a
2L-5N era name for "Hull Street" central office, or if "BEacon" was maybe some earlier 2L-4N name for some other Richmond VA area c.o. switch? I haven't found out if Norfolk VA ever had a possible 2L-5N name for 58x or "Granby Street".Anyhow, after Baltimore MD "Edmonson Avenue" BLTMMDEDCG0 1AESS is replaced with the Genband Remote Packet switch BLTMMDEDRP0 (hosted by the Genband CS-2000 Packet switch ANNPMDANPS0 in Annapolis MD), VeriZon will still have (only) TWO remaining 1AESS offices, both of them in legacy Bell Atlantic/C&P-Virginia (Richmond "Hull Street" and Norfolk Zn.02 "Granby Street").
at&t's ILECs (Ameritech/Michigan Bell, Ameritech/Illinois Bell, BellSouth/Southern Bell, BellSouth/South Central Bell, and SBC/ Southwestern Bell) will still have some 50 remaining 1As in service, as mentioned earlier. I don't know what at&t-ILECs' timetable is for replacing these remaining 1As with digital or packet switches, but at&t/SBC/BellSouth/etc. has indeed been slowly but steadily replacing their remaining 1AESS switches with digital and packet switches since the 1990s-era. Qwest/US-West (now part of CenturyLink), Cincinnati Bell, and Bell Canada have NO remaining 1ESS or 1AESS c.o.switches. Nor do the sold-off areas that were once part of VZ/BA (C&P-WV sold to Frontier) or VZ/BA/NYNEX (NET&T in ME/NH/VT sold to FairPoint) -- these states were already 100% digital when VeriZon sold off these legacy BOC states a few years ago.
Mark J. Cuccia markjcuccia at yahoo dot com Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina