larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (09/16/89)
> [Moderator's Note: Bernie, thanks very much for a very fitting close to > this issue of the Digest. Indeed, the changes going on in just the past > decade -- let alone the past quarter century of telephony are astounding. > To the younger folks, it probably does not seem all that mind-boggling, > but some of us have been three or four major changes: from manual service > to the very early stepper switches; then to crossbar and more sophisticated > applications such as E-911 (we had this in Chicago on crossbar!); then to > ESS; now various enhancements to that. Where does it end? You tell me what > to expect in the year 2014, a quarter-century from now. PT] It particularly amazes me how PABX and station equipment has changed in just twenty years. Twenty years ago I could >rent< a PABX from one and one only vendor: New York Telephone, and I could have a choice of anything I wanted as long as it was: * 507B "cordless" manual board with 5 trunks and 20 lines; a 1950 version of 1920 technology * 556 cord board; a 1945 version of 1920 technology having "modular construction" * 608 cord board; a 1960 version of 1920 technology having new-fangled features of "automatic ring and attendant flash" * 701 and related (710, 711, 740, etc.) SxS PABX's; required dedicating a WHOLE ROOM to the telephone company * 756 dial PABX; maximum of 80 lines, size of two household refrigerators * 757 dial PABX; maximum of 200 lines, full-featured version with maximum number of lines occupying size of EIGHT household refrigerators * 20/40 Dial Pak; the worst excuse for a PABX ever conceived, with the possible exception of the 755 (which was so useless that it was already discontinued) Of the dial PABX's above, DTMF service was technically available, but was non-tariffed and considered a "special assembly" by New York Telephone, and was not provided unless one's organization was a Very Important Customer. :-) The 558 >manual< PBX using Moden Crossbar Technology was not yet offered in 1969, nor was the 770 crossbar PABX, or the electronic crossbar PABX's like the 805, 811 or 812. The original Dimension PABX (now quite obsolete), were it described in 1969 would seem like something out of a Buck Rogers movie. The Carterfone Decision and the birth of the interconnect industry certainly sparked a revolution in telecommunication technology at the PABX and station level. I shudder to think about how far station and PABX technology would have advanced had there been no Carterfone Decision. My organization has four separate facilities, and in July we had a local interconnect company install a Northern Telecom Meridian SL-1 to serve about 100 extensions in two buildings about 1/4 mile apart (we have our own UG cable between the buildings). The SL-1 replaced a badly aging Tele-Resources electronic PABX which was losing about one call in ten. The SL-1, complete with voice mail and auto-attendant features and equipped for 100 lines is about the size of a four-drawer file cabinet. Almost all of our stations are electronic sets, some of which have LCD alphanumeric displays. This SL-1 is so sophisticated and so different from the technology at the time when I had firsthand experience in the telecommunications industry that it boggles my mind beyond belief. The SL-1 is more of a computer than a PABX in the traditional sense of the word. Also, since there is there is absolutely no way to "tinker" with it :-), unlike PABX's of previous generations, I have nothing to do with its administration other than to make certain that some system-wide features get set up correctly by the interconnect company. Telecommunications technology sure has changed in the past twenty years! <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?"