On Jun 19, 7:29 pm, Sam Spade wrote:
Yes, quite a few. The first #1 ESS deployment was, as I recall, in
> 1967. It started off slow, but DC became the first place to experience
> a major deployment, for obvious reasons. ;-)
I believe the first "production" ESS was in Suscanna (sp?) N.J. in
1965. After that it was rolled out slowly. Each installation had to be monitored closely to ensure high reliability and to get technicians trained on debugging and servicing. Unlike electro-mechanical, one could not physically go look at a relay or contact point to see a defect or stick test meters against it. Hardware failures of the circuit cards -- still a problem back then--had to be detected in other ways. Bell made improvements after the experience of each installation.
As time went on, experience and improved electronics allowed Bell to upgrade the original ESS package. Bell learned about what was necessary in terms of CPU capacity and speed, it learned what peripheral "add-ons" could safely be accomodated and when the CPU had to be faster.
(The Bell Labs histories go into this in detail by logical component. It was sort of like adding a turbo charger to a car's engine and maybe better fuel injection vs. designing a whole new engine and transmission. We take a lot of this stuff for granted today.)
Also, Bell developed secondary models to accomodate varying exchange sizes and capacity. Lastly, as others noted, software programming changes were necessary.
ESS gradually was rolled out in cities across the country.
In cities, often multiple exchanges were served out of one building. Often, but by no means always, the exchanges would be 221, 222, 223, etc.
Often when a switch was upgraded, such as from panel to #5 crossbar or to ESS, only _one_ of the exchanges would be upgraded. So, if they chose to upgrade 222 and you were 223, you still were served by the old equipment. This was common in cities. If you wanted services offered by the new exchange, you had to change your telephone number (Bell would waive the service charge in this case). In the 1960s, some people wanted Touch Tone so badly they were willing to change their number to get it. In the 1970s likewise for new ESS features.
As to Washington, it's understandable that Bell would want to show off it's latest stuff with features, but at the same time, Bell would want reliable equipment as well. I don't think Washington would be used as a test bed until ESS was truly thoroughly debugged. I suspect Washington got plenty of #5 crossbar to provide Centrex service and that Bell wouldn't be so quick to scrap them for ESS. Anyway, Bell might want to impress a _few_ Federal agencies, but for most mundane places (like Labor and Social Security), standard equipment sufficed.
I don't know the exact total rollout rates over time. I do know that between roughly 1970 and 1975 relatively few ESS were installed, that is, a city's service would be mostly provided by pre-ESS machines. However, from roughly 1975 to 1980 ESS came on line quickly and by
1980 a city's service would be mostly ESS. It seemed the last ones to cutover would be the newest No. 5 crossbar exchanges. It wasn't too long that after 1980 that a Bell company could proclaim it was 100% ESS. (Obviously this all varied by area, some faster, some slower.)
I believe when the digital ESS version replaced the analog version conversions went quicker. Also, I suspect the decline in the cost of electronics and continued minaturization made the boxes cheaper.
I can't help but suspect the conversion from crossbar to ESS occured faster than they had expected, and some crossbar switches were retired with plenty of useful life left in them. (Some city panel machines probably should've been retired earlier).
Touchtone was available on No 5 XBAR in most of those areas in the the > late 1960s.
I'm not sure if they ever developed converters for Touch Tone for panel, but they did for step-by-step.
I know, as I bought one then. ;-) The first Selectric came out in 1961.
Wasn't a Correcting Selectric over $1,000 in 1973? That's an awful lot of money for back then, when a mid-level white collar salarly might be $10,000 a year. I believe I bought a good Smith-Corona portable electric back then and it was a few hundred bucks.
> For some reason I don't know, when Bell and Motorola applied to test
>> new cell service, the FCC sat on it for two years.
> I'd have to look through my old BSTJ's but I recall the AMPS tests
> being conducted in New Jersey in the late 1970s. Chicago was the
> first launch of AMPS in 1983.
When I say "test", I meant to say public trial with paying customers. I think it had been tested internally and ready to go to public trial. I'm talking in the 1970s. I've read this in a number of places and I'm really curious why the FCC simply sat on their application for two years. I believe at that time Bell and Motorola had a joint venture in mobile service -- Bell offered the service and network tie-in while Motorola supplied the radio-telephone sets. This was still in the car-phone era.
Let's remember that between the time some new technology is first announced to the public and when it becomes _widely_ available can be several years or longer.
TELECOM Digest Editor Noted:
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I had a similar thing going on in
> Chicago for all of three or four days, back in 1973, right after
> Illinois Bell started 'Call Forwarding'. Calls within the city itself
> were only one untimed unit. Calls to/from the suburbs were two or more
> units on a timed basis. This sometimes led to the situation where
> Chicago was on one side of the street and some suburb was across the
> street i.e. Chicago and Evanston, so those calls cost more.
That arrangement seems strange.
In Philadelphia and New York City, if you lived in a city neighborhood at the border, a call to the adjacent suburb next door would still be only one unit (untimed). It was only if you were calling from the inner city or out to a distant suburb did the timing kick in. In other words, if you were calling across the street that happened to be city limits you paid nothing extra.
My impression of Bell System charging policy was that a local calling area generally was not only your own exchange, but also exchanges directly adjacent to it. In many places, crossing state lines didn't matter. To this day crossing a state line LATA--which should a toll call carried by a long distance carrier, is still treated as a local call between two adjacent exchanges even though now we must dial 1+ac
+7d.
In any event, it was common for suburban Philadelphia businesses (and even affluent residences) to have two phone lines, one local, one a "FX" line from the city. They could use the FX line to make or receive city calls and no message units would be charged. I checked the yellow pages and this continues to this day, although message units have been reduced.
Not quite _that_ unlimited, said Miss Prissy, the service rep when she
> caught us by trying to call him on his new unlimited unit phone line
> one day. You cannot have two phones in the same house, one unlimited
> calling and one with a tiny, 'regular' package of units, she warned.
That seems strange as I have that very arrangement right now. I use one line for outgoing calls and the other line for incoming calls.
Indeed, back in the 1960s when I visited suburban people with multiple phone lines I'd be directed to use the proper telephone to make a call for that very reason.
Furthermore, she noted, the 'company' finds it very questionable when
> you leave your umlimited metro line call forwarded 24/7 to a business
> place in Chicago.
I suspect what they feared was you were using a residential line for business service. The phone company (and regulators) were very sensitive about that since business customers paid more to cross subsidize residential customers as well as cover their heavier use of equipment. That later became an issue in BBS's, where the phoneco claimed they were a "business" service. (Note that "business" is not whether it is non-profit or not, but rather an organization rather than a residence.)
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The reason it seemed strange -- and it was -- was that *everything* in the Chicago telephonic area was based around the center of everything there, State & Madison Streets in downtown Chicago. The first 'circle' took in all of Chicago ONLY which was Zone 1. Suburbs which touched Chicago were Zone 2. Suburbs which were a bit further out and did not touch Chicago were Zone 3. Still further out were Zone 4 and 5 suburbs. Some of the furthest away geographic neighborhoods in Chicago proper (such as Austin, Pullman, Rogers Park) were at one time independent villages on their own, such as Austin, Illinois; Pullman, Illinois; Rogers Park, Illinois. These independent towns or villages were eventually annexed into the City of Chicago itself, and they got the 'benefits' given to city dwellers including phone calls: call anywhere in the 'city' for one thin nickle. This was in the 1890-1910 era. By the way, each of those previously independent towns/villages (now Chicago neighborhoods) still have as their oldest and first phone exchanges name/numbers such as AUStin-7, PULlman-5, and ROGers Park-4, or 773-287, 773-785, and
773-764, dating back to when they were, well, independent villages. At one point, even ENGlewood-4 and HYDe Park-3 were the independent towns of Englewood and Hyde Park, Illinois. Anyway, just as the sun spins around the earth each day, everything revolved around downtown Chicago at the center of the city, State and Madison Streets. That is how the Zone system came to be. Chicago residents were able to call some *35 miles* (as an extreme) from one place in Chicago to another place in Chicago (7600 north by 4200 west to 13500 South by 2900 East in a few cases, and all for one thin nickle. Chicago-proper residents were given an allotment of 80 'message units' per month to use as they wished as part of their monthly bill. As long as your call started and terminated in Chicago itself, talk all day if you wanted for that one unit (nickle). Because all of Chicago was in Zone 1.
But the suburbs were _different_. They got the same 80 units per month in their allotment, but their 'local calling area' was much smaller. Sure, the entire village was in 'the same zone' (be it Zone 2 or 3)and the same rules applied, but one side of your town was three or four blocks from the 'other side' of town. And since all but the most provincial of the suburban dwellers had some sort of business or social relationship with someone in Chicago, they had to pay dearly for phone service. Oh, the rates were the same, the unit allotment was the same, but the allotment just did not go that far. Illinois Bell once conducted a study of their subscriber's phone service needs, and where Chicagoans plodded along with 80 or 100 message units just fine, the suburbanites typically needed 400-500 units just to 'be' each month. And by the 1980's, more and more residents were living _and working_ in the suburbs. A Chicago city dweller usually considered 'unlimited call pack' (as phone service packs were known) as an extravaganza; quite expensive; suburbanites, especially those some distance away from the city itself, unlimited call pack was a necessary thing, since it was all based on downtown Chicago anyway.
Then Ameritech took over. One of the first things they did was announce _no more call packs_, no more call for 'free' in the city where you lived only and similar. The new rule was you could call for 'free' unlimited in time, anywhere within an eight mile radius of where your phone was located. Anywhere within your own central office or the next contingent central office. Now, the suburbanites had an even shake with the city dwellers. More than eight miles (or your central office and the next C.O. away) you would pay about 5 cents per minute; and you could purchase various packages which reduced the rate to as low as 2.1 cents per minute. Bell's rationale for all this was "most subscribers' community of interest is not going to be twenty or thirty miles away; it is going to be around their immediate neighborhood, or certainly within 5-8 miles of their home." Now suburban dwellers could call maybe two communities away where a family member worked or lived for 'free' just like a city dweller. And, the city dwellers didn't really miss not being able to call all the way to 139th and Burnham Avenue for 'free' anyway except if they lived out there (within the city, recall) and in that case they got it as part of the eight mile radius like anyone else. Miss Prissy was furious about the new plan, of course, and businesses were never allowed (under the old unlimited call pack plan or the new 'eight miles radius for free' plan) to have any of those concessions anyway. _They_ always had to pay virtually everytime the phone went off hook for an outgoing call. But for most people, Chicago came to be considered as just one blob on a map of northern Illinois which wound up being divided into several 'eight mile radius' areas surrounded by a few hundred suburbs clustered together in 'eight mile radius' areas, a few suburbs here, a few there, etc. And of course, telephone prefixes and 'area codes' no longer mattered where the billing was concerned. When I had an office on Howard Street in Chicago years ago (old 312), to call across the street to Evanston to the McDonalds Restaurant (old 708) to get my lunch delivered it always cost me
2 units or about ten cents. When the rates were changed, the same call was within _my_ eight mile radius so it became a free call, but to call to downtown Chicago (present 312) at cost me 2 units or ten cents for the ten mile call. In essence, Ameritech said that "downtown Chicago is no longer the center of the universe" and for most of us it was a welcome decision. PAT]