AT&T Archives: Operation Desert Switch

[@markemanuele1929]

I remember this project, I worked on part of this in Bell Labs in Holmdel and Lincroft at the time.

[@watomb]

That’s pretty amazing back then. Guessing it’s the one moment the engineers remember over a lifetime of engineering.

[@kirbyyasha]

I love how they reference the old Bell System toward the end.

[@michaelmallory4958]

I also worked in Holmdel and Middletown. It was a great experience and great company to work for. I believe it was managed to it's demise.

[@brens7094]

My brother, my hero passed in 2018. 😢 so proud of the work he did and all he was a part of in Kuwait. Gary Gearheart Purple Heart 💜 recipient, decorated Vietnam Vet 😢😘

[@Chris_at_Home]

I was there in April putting in a trunked radio system with an small telecom company. Years later I worked at ATT and got to know many of the techs that did this work over there. I saw days over there where looking at the sky was like looking at coal the sky was so black with oil,smoke.

[@wecontrolthevideo]

“I’m going to tell my grand children about the job we did here” - It’s been 30 years, there here now.

[@d.m.4815]

That is awesome!! Not one company in the world today could pull that off!

[@WhitfieldProductionsTV]

Give the resources cisco could.

[@gextreme2381]

Today, this could be done in a few days. This isn't very impressive anymore. Many companies would run circles around AT&T while they are still having conference calls deciding what to do.

[@WhitfieldProductionsTV]

@@gextreme2381 For the time, and how we just didnt have resources on resources back than, yeah it's amazing, but now. true. but with starlink, can you imagine this never being needed, all you need to do is throw up a dish and go? amazing where we are going.

[@yfs9035]

AT&T using it's dominance for good

[@coshiro1]

I didn't even know you could just put a semi on a plane like that and fly to wherever

[@bryanp.1327]

The C5 is to the sky what the tractor-trailer is to the road, that's how the military gets all their big equipment to places, quickly.

[@markarca6360]

Now, it's the C-130. This is also used by U.S. allies like the Philippines.

[@Stache987]

@@markarca6360 no wonder half the call centers we call into are answered in the Phillipines. You gotta love telling them something, them having to give sickening false empathy repeating it back, then you corrected them, and they repeat that back, and you still have to correct them until you're blue in the face, or should I say red faced in anger.. all this to save a $ here and there in labor, and having more and more unemployment here, and companies failing, communities folding due to no jobs, but some stockholders making some dividends, then the CEO's making more than half of the hourly payroll in salary.

[@williamjones4483]

@@Stache987 They do it that way because that is how they are instructed to do it. As far as call centers being in the Philippines or elsewhere for that matter, only a handful of equipment is needed to establish a call center.

[@mogwopjr]

I know this was all temporary, but I never liked that style of COSMIC frame. We have one in an office and it just does not have the space to contain the sheer number of jumper wires from OE's, TIE's and EXC/PG pairs I understand the need to conserve space, but after a while there are too many jumpers to be contained and dressed properly.

[@Stache987]

Couldn't they have separate trucks to do these tie ins, and use cables to connect them together, somewhat similar to remote terminal architecture.. in the early 90s I was a RBOC service representative and we had some #5ESS served offices that were ORM remotes, we had some restrictions of course, such as dual service being unavailable, I'm sure there were others beyond my training.

[@eastdoors]

Amazing story

[@mxfilip]

8:38 - That's deep

[@NikHYTWP]

I wonder what happened to this trailer

[@FG-lq4pz]

I feel like I was there.

[@Hot80s]

7:18 The phony cold medina

[@bradwilmot5066]

ESS Medina... :-)

[@dick4042]

I wonder what ever happened to that 5ESS?

[@uploadJ]

Parted out to other 5ESS in-country ...

[@Stache987]

And to think before a item comes off the assembly line now, it's obsolete.. this was 30 years ago, Western Electric, who manufactured these switches was closed and the product sold to another succession of companies.. to this day, I think parts availability is limited to machines taken out of service, and remanufactured parts.

[@etsabc123]

We take away and then look like the good guy when we give it back

[@gwernette5971]

If this had been a poor country this would have been a much different video. Of course AT&T can do this when you're talking about the richest country in the world

[@jamielacourse7578]

Wow......a corporation actually helping. Re- evolution is possible.....

[@KentHenry8]

They didn't do it for free. Kuwait surely paid a fortune for that system

[@rtel123]

Had this destruction happened 15 years later, Kuwait would have done what other countries that were hopelessly lagging in switching capacity: quickly install a cell network and call it done. Or put in VOIP landlines.

[@imark7777777]

Yeah totally different now a lot. the one benefit of POTS was the ubiquity of user equipment. Cell phones or avoid would've meant and user equipment which would've had been replaced anyway where as most POTS stuff if it still somewhat worked could be reused. And then there's power POTS was the equivalent of POE but on a much larger scale end of aces didn't have to have power available.

[@Stache987]

@@imark7777777 I stoll believe in a backup wireline. I had one accessible when my grandmother had a stroke.. it held a solid connection until the ambulance arrived. Now I live in a community who installed fiber and deprecated the copper. If there's a power outage, it's not going to work as it's VOIP based, let alone our local cell tower is on the same grid, and is most likely cabled through our independent telco.. now I'm imagining how the trunking is planned out, city to city, one by one? Lots of power for one out of town call.

[@aquatrax123]

The aladdin music when they interview the Kuwaiti people is a little over the top.

[@ronniedelahoussayechauvin6717]

I don’t understand all this, I was never given information. I was never in the Military.

[@markarca6360]

1991 Gulf War

[@non-human3072]

Bold intelligence gathering...here use our phones

[@irgski]

Oooooo, the “evil” corporation helping bring communication back to a country....

[@imark7777777]

I know times are different now but I'm thinking yes and how many spy recorders were in that thing? Oh probably none because they had to wear it from one side and back so they could send every call outwards too?

[@ohmusicsweetmusic]

Damn the MONEY we spend to tear somethin up just to have to build it back again. CRAZY!! Do we do this everywhere the military goes? HOLY FUCK!

[@digitalrailroader]

ohmusicsweetmusic actually, it was the Iraqis that destroyed and looted Kuwait's telephone system; they basically ripped everything out that was bolted down, packed up everything that wasn't bolted down, and trucked it all to Iraq. anything they couldn't take, they destroyed.

[@imark7777777]

No we don't do this everywhere but we do still end up paying for it just look at Korea....