0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) (07/24/90)
In earlier articles, we first had an inaccurate press report
that America's last magneto "exchange" had been replaced in Shoup,
Idaho. Knowledgable Digest readers corrected it to say it was but one
line, and therefore not an exchange; that Bryant Pond, Maine had
accurately been previously reported as the "last magneto exchange in
America" several years ago. Now, it seems the trade journal
{Communications Week} sent a reporter to get the whole story accurately.
The following appeared on Page 1 of {Communications Week}, July 23,
1990:
AN ERA ENDS
Hand-Cranked Switch Retired
By Dawn Bushaus
Surrounded by mountains in the Salmon National Forest lies the
tiny town of Shoup, Idaho. The people who live in and near this
isolated hamlet on the River of No Return grew accustomed to losing
their phone service when the wind kicked up or heavy rains fell.
No longer. What is believed to be the last manually operated
telephone switch in the country was replaced earlier this month with a
new digital switch and buried cable, making reliable touch-tone
service a reality,but at the same time relegating a part of the town's
culture to the history books.
"We're excited about the new switch. The old one doesn't
serve us very well," said Peggy Pedrow, a town resident, "but we also
hate to see it go." Pedrow and her husband Garry own the Shoup Store
and Cafe, a combination general store, reataurant, post office and gas
station.
The Pedrows are the only people who actually reside in Shoup.
But the old magneto telephone system -- operated manually during the
past year by the owners of the Motel Deluxe in the town of Salmon
about 50 miles from here -- served them and 15 other people living
nearby.
The new switch, actually located 30 miles away in North Fork,
Idaho, serves more than 60 customers. Since the Shoup area is not
served by commercial power, butis supplied with energy generated by
the river and a wooden paddle wheel, the switch had to be located
where commercial power was available.
The new system consists of 52 miles of buried copper wire and
a small digital switch manufactured by Redcom Laboratories Inc.,
Victor, NY. The switch is designed to serve small markets that are
often in hard-to-reach places, said Lou Bender, director of new
business development at Redcom. A distributed-processing architecture
make the switch highly reliable and economical.
Rural Telephone Company of Glenns Ferry,Idaho, which supplies
phone service to remote locations, installed, owns and maintains the
system. The switch can accommodate up to 200 subscribers without an
upgrade, said David Carpenter, manager of Rural Telephone Company.
The old magneto was an AC generator that created the
electricity needed to ring the local's telephone bells. The system,
which had a single 20-party telephone line, had to be cranked by hand.
The line itself was strung across 40 miles on trees, fence posts and
rocky cliffs. It was not uncommon for a heavy rain or rockslide to
pull the line down, leaving area residents without phone service for
up to three weeks at a time, Peggy Pedrow said.
The system dated back to 1931, when it was installed by the
National Forest Service. In 1952, the agency sold the antiquated line
to local residents for one dollar. The residents maintained the line
themselves over the years, but Century Telephone of Idaho provided the
operator services.
Then, last December, Century Telephone, a subsidiary of
Monroe, LA - based Century Telephone Enterprises, closed its operator
services center in Salmon, while still providing phone service there.
"That left a technological gap between the magneto line and
the rest of the world," said Ron Schleuter, division manager at
Century Telephone of Idaho. "That switch had to be operated manually."
Shoup locals were worried. It appeared they might actually be
stranded without telephone service. Then Rural Telephone stepped in.
Officials there suggested to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission
that -- with a loan from the Rural Electrification Administration --
they could construct a new digital telephone system for area
residents.
Still, the residents of this area near the Continental Divide
needed to find someone who would operate the manual switch 24 hours a
day while the new system was being built. "The solution to that was a
stroke of genius," Schleuter said.
Century Telephone used its digital switch in nearby Salmon to
trunk the magneto line to the Motel Deluxe. The motel owner, who
lived there and was necessarily on round-the-clock duty, was able to
remotely operate the switch, by setting up conference calls.
Pat Fitzgerald, the motel's former owner, did the switching
until she sold the property last month, when Steve Freestone and his
wife, Donay, tookover the duty.
"I know they'll be glad to have the new switch, especially for
emergencies," Steve Freestone said.
He said there was an unwritten agreement between him and the
folks served by the old switch. "They didn't make calls after 10 PM
or before 6 AM unless it was an emergency," he said.
But now, Shoup residents won't have to worry about when they
place a call or whether it will go through. Digital technology has
arrived in a town that, for many years, was an anachronism.
Still, it will likely be some time before they upgrade to
ISDN.
-------------------------
And so, as Paul Harvey puts it, "Now you know the REST of the story!""Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (07/28/90)
-The Saga Continues
In a story (Digest V10, Iss511), it seemed the tale of America's last
magneto telephone exchanges had reached a quiescent state. However,
today's reading brought some more news, this time showing the rapid
pace of movement some areas can have in telecommunications technology.
Case in point: Bryant Pond, Maine, last heard of when in 1983 its
approximately 450 subscribers turned their magneto cranks for the last
time. Now, {Communications News} for July, 1990 carries the following
story on Page 12:
"TINY TELCO GOES FROM MAGNETO PHONE TO SONET IN SEVEN YEARS
"Seven years after taking out the last magneto telephone in the
country," <Sorry, Patrick, that's how poor our trade press is. They
don't even know what the competition has reported on Page One!>
"Oxford County Telephone in rural Maine is intalling a Synchronous
Optical Network (SONET).
"Bryant Pond, Maine made news back in 1983 when it gave up its
magneto phone. The SONET network, when finished next year, will move
traffic at the OC-3 rate of 155 megabits per second.
"Oxford Telephone and Bryant Pond Telephone will use a
combination of (manufacturers' equipment list) to connect Bryant Pond
and five other towns northwest of Portland, Maine.
"The huge capacity looks ahead to future telco networking
requirements as well as distance learning by video."
Well, I don't know the Maine market area, but expect the caribou have
a lot less need for phones there than perhaps public education does
for some 45 megabit video. Otherwise, I sure can't see the Maine PUC
approving 155 megabits worth -- 3 DS-3s @ 672 trunks each working out
to more than 2,000 telephone trunks!
Perhaps Shoup, Idaho will get on the fiber bandwagon sooner than
we might think; likely driven by electronic education delivery, as
seems the case for Bryant Pond.