Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: davef@brspyr1.brs.com (Dave Fiske) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Touring the Central Office Message-ID:Date: 18 Aug 89 18:15:55 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY Lines: 51 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 307, message 4 of 8 > In article john@zygot.uucp writes: > > Something that every reader of this group should do is take a tour of a > > local central office. I would kill for that opportunity now with all When I was in college in Ithaca, NY (in the 70s), they had an open house at the CO. It was definitely a good time. Strangely enough, the staff were extremely open with us. First, we were walked through the racks, and a technician asked one person in the group what her phone number was. He traced over and down and showed her where her line was connected. "That's your phone number, right there." I remember being impressed with the amount of time they spent just checking their equipment and cabling--according to the technician, 75% of their efforts were just spent testing. While we were there, a bell started ringing, and a bare light bulb mounted over a door started flashing. "Oh, don't worry, just a minor alarm", he said, and ignored it. (Of course, I also remember thinking about how little work they performed in turning on your service--being a student, I was acutely aware of how much it cost!) Next, we were bussed over to a separate location, where the operators and other staff were located. They showed us their latest equipment acquisition--which they seemed particularly proud of--a PPCS board (Person-to-Person/Collect/Special, or so they told us). This was great, they said, because if someone were making a collect call, they could dial the number right in, and it was displayed on the board for the operator to see. I remember they also told us how operators had to listen for the beeps made when someone was inserting coins in a pay phone, and even admitted that sometimes people put the coins in too fast for the operator to keep track of. I was surprised to hear them say this, since it's almost inviting people to rip them off, but it shows how honest they were being. I asked how long they waited before re-assigning phone numbers, since I had been getting a lot of calls for the previous assignee. They said they waited a year, but when I mentioned my problem, they admitted that, in neighborhoods where there was high concentration of students (obviously with a high turnover rate) they would sometimes re-assign them in only 9 months. Well, at least they didn't cop out. I wish I could remember more of what I saw, and that I had had more knowledge then about what I did see. But I agree, it definitely is worth doing if the opportunity ever comes up. -- "ANGRY WOMEN BEAT UP SHOE SALESMAN Dave Fiske (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) WHO POSED AS GYNECOLOGIST" Home: David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com Headline from Weekly World News CIS: 75415,163 GEnie: davef