Comments by "CalBob750" (@calbob750) on "AT&T Tech Channel" channel.

  1. You’ll remember this “No job is so important and no service so urgent that we cannot take time to do our work safely” Bell System
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  2. You knew you worked in a big CO when the Main Frame was hundreds of feet long and had a balcony.
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  3. I worked for the Bell System for 33 years. The further along the breakup of the Bell System progressed the greater the degradation of customer service. Once upon a time all technicians in a location received the same training. Then someone discovered that training cost money and customer service was cheaper with flip charts and an overseas call center.
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  4. Let’s have a shout out for the other 1920s technology serving Big Cities...Panel. Cleveland Main and some suburban offices didn’t cutover until 1974. The Cleveland45 office had 45 central office technicians and apparatus techs for 24 hour coverage. This went down to five after all switches were cutover.
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  5. I worked at a Panel Switching System at ClevOH45. OBT milked the 20s technology there until 1974. Had 45 technicians until 1974. Next year 7. Worked on D1, D2, D3, D4, D5 carrier Cleveland Main. Fortunately, the benefits...medical and pension remained excellent at least until 2000.
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  6. The Bell System was able to keep electromechanical switching from the 1920s chugging along until the early 70s in the network. That is why you had rotary dial telephones. Before Electronic Switching Systems connections were made using electromechanical Step by Step and Panel or Crossbar. There are videos on those vintage systems.
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  7. You might want to check out the Radar Station Veterans website to find people who had your experience. I was stationed for one year in 1968 at Thomasville AFS in Alabama. ( as a medic). In the 60s Thomasville was the middle of nowhere in Alabama. At the time it was anticipated Russian bombers would be flying up from Cuba.
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  8. Little did they realize that every second of your life could be monetized by any activity on the internet. Big Business or Big Brother?
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  9. In the 70s a high speed data circuit was 56kb.
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  10. In the 70s traditional male jobs were opened up to women. Installer, Lineman, Central Office Technician. These were the higher paying jobs.
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  11. In major cities like Cleveland the electromechanical switching system called Panel was in place from 1928 to the early 70s. This equipment made dial based calls. Replaced by ESS.
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  12. Back in the day Ma Bell owned the telephones. If you bought your own phone to have an extension you were supposed to notify the phone company so they could bill you.
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  13.  @bodeine454  the rotary phone you have would convert dial pulses to the tones you here on a modern phone. The dial pulse based equipment shown in the video was generally replaced in the 1970s.
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  14. And all these towers had to be line of sight.
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  15. Someone decided that it was all about shareholder value. That’s why when you call for customer service you contact someone with a flip chart and no understanding of the English language.
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  16. You can see films of Step by Step, Panel, Crossbar switching on YouTube. There is a working switching equipment museum in Seattle Washington. C.O.Tech starting pay in Cleveland, Ohio 1969....$87
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  17. I worked in a Central Office in Cleveland in the 70s. All the underground cable came into the building. A nearby gas station had leaking gasoline storage tanks that migrated into the CO basement. All the management and operators exited the building without notifying the technicians. Where’s OSHA when you need it.
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  18. Famous historical sign in every Bell Telco garage and CO. “No job is so important and no service so urgent we cannot take time to do our work safely”. Bell System
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  19. Up until the transistor the Bell System was able to keep the network alive using electromechanical equipment designed and built in the twenties. The Electronic Switching System 1 of the early seventies was the Great Leap Forward. Historians do a search on Step by Step and Panel Switching systems. Needed three floors of equipment manned by dozens of technicians to keep those museum pieces running to serve twenty to forty thousand subscribers.
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  20. Distant Early Warning
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  21. Check out Radar Station Veterans website by people who staffed these sites in the sixties.
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  22. In 1962 the Bell System was still serving major cities with 1920s switching technology that wouldn’t be replaced until the early 70s. Rotary dial for for that 1920s technology. Touch tone phones were for the first wave of digital technology...ESS.
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  23. Back in the 70s and earlier it would take at least twenty minutes to trace a call through the average central office. Now it’s instantaneous.
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  24. Look at videos of the technology used in telephone central offices. Panel, Step by Step, Crossbar. In many big cities 1920’s technology hobbled along into the 70s before replacement with Electronic Switching.
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  25. Telephone company historians may notice that rotary dial telephones and no touch tone phones. Touch tone not in service yet . Every telco technician wore a plaid shirt with a pocket saver in the pocket for things like pens, pencils, orangewood sticks and burnishing tools.
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  26. No voice mail, touch tone phones just emerging, no fiber optic cable. Hi speed data circuit 56kb. The Bell System was still operating switching systems developed in the 1920’s. The first Electronic Switching System was about ten years away. And then “divestiture”.
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  27. In the Big Cities the mechanical Switching System of choice was Panel. OBT milked that 1920s technology until 1971 in the Cleveland area. A phone technology museum in Seattle Washington still has working examples of that hundred year old technology.
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  28. It wasn’t until about 1974 that women were finally allowed in jobs traditionally held by men. Lineman, Installer, Central Office Technician.
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