Central Office

[@seaningram3285]

Thanks for the tour. I used to be a Security Officer for Admiral Security in January 1996 when we had that snow, and I was at Bell Atlantic/AT&T site on Turner Road and Hull Street in Chesterfield County, Virginia. I used to patrol both buildings at night after escorting the Phone Operators safely to their vehicles so they could go home. There were techs in the building doing tech work, so I wasn't totally alone there. We had a basement and a sub-basement that had a large generator in a large room. There was a mid-sized battery room, too. I think both Bell Atlantic and AT&T vacated both buildings some years ago.

[@wb8cxo]

50 yrs in CO best time of my life! Kudos to the techs.... decent frame wiring and fiber routing far better than in my area. Constant battle I was lucky to have almost total control of 3 COs and cud keep things neat.... easier to work on and less trouble for the customer. Thanks for the great tour!

[@saravanartsdalen3611]

brings back memories of my career as an ess/transport technician…loved working ln the equipment

[@slip0n0fall]

Wild man...what us old phreaks would have given to have access to this kind of info 30yrs ago

[@chrisw443]

This is how im connecting to youtube right now. So cool!

[@steveurbach3093]

Amazing that a CO still has the same look half a century later. I was a SxS, #5 frameman in the mid 60's. I am surprised there is no wall between the Batteries and the rest (corrosive vapor possibility) .

[@stepannovotny4291]

We still had step by step relays in the late 70's early 80's in Coquitlam BC Canada, so I was hoping to see some cross-bar switches in your video! Oh well, I guess contacts and pivot points eventually do wear out. The waveguide maze in your video was a treat to see!

[@pdbruce]

We still had some of those here and working in the 90’s for the FAA. The place clicked all the time, you might recall.

[@stepannovotny4291]

@@pdbruce I don't know about clicking because I was only dumpster diving and looking into the windows, but one of the guys who worked there told me that he had to clean one step-by-step relay per day. That's a LOT of contacts to clean! No patience for that ;o)

[@itz_mxxri]

The connection museum in Seattle, WA has both the no. 1 and 5 crossbar installed there! As well as SxS and the only working Panel switch existing in the world !

[@clovenhoofdragon9302]

Ok, don’t giggle as I’m simply a wistful outsider looking in. In the very late ‘70s, I wanted to work for the telephone company OR go into banking. Because of convenience, I chose the latter. Of course, I did not lose my obsession with telephone equipment. The bank I worked for (at their local main office) sported a fancy Northern Telecom PBX system and I sporadically played “operator”. The fact than inbound calls could be easily connected to any of our branches by keying three digits amazed me. One of our branches was located quite far (right on the Tennessee/Kentucky state line-we were TN based). Apparently, that was an expensive endeavor as that branch was only given one “internal” line. During one of my many experiments, I managed to confuse the entire system by obtaining an outside line and then calling our main number and answering it. I connected that call to various places and eventually a bizarre “buzz” started invading all calls. I played dumb.

[@tomstrum6259]

Very nice video....Almost made me get ready for work tomorrow !! .....Retired bunch yrs ago after a 50 yr run in CO's....Most of that time pre-fiber Analog & digital Wireline to Weco TD-2 vacuum Tube waveguide microwave cxr technology....Brings back lots of good memories.....Thx for sharing....

[@donski1519]

Tip, pan slower, walk slower. You may not see it live, but walking fast and panning fast can cause motion sickness for the viewer. Great video, love the content.

[@frankrueter5218]

Very interesting sight was last in a CO in Dec '73 when my father retired after 37 years with Bell System. He worked in a number 5 crossbar (flat spring) from cut in on Nov 30, 1949 till retirement. The Co's sure look a lot different had motor generator sets charging batteries and a couple of mercury arc rectifiers for their coin pay phone collection. Communications Museum's number 5 exchange looks similar except I think theirs is the later wire spring relay type. Operating sound is quite different between the two. Have a neighbor that still has POTS and I have fiber with phone and internet. Voice connections are very clean, I call Burbank from Cleveland and the calls are sure different for years back. Great tour!

[@dieseldragon6756]

Believe it or not: London Underground are *still* using Mercury arc rectifiers to provide DC current! 🚇⚡😳 ...And we British think we're _Levelling Up?!?!?_ 🏛🇬🇧🤣

[@Mike-ij9vj]

I work in the industry, we still have original cables and use along with fiber optics. The copper guys still fix old cable, on on a monthly basis. they still have the compressors pumping air on them.

[@bruehlt]

Wow - I always remember hearing about the central switching office as a kid - freaking cool to see one!!

[@voxframe2259]

Really nice tour and nice CO! Very clean compared to what I’ve seen in some places. I’m in DMS land in Quebec Canada. Ahhh the sounds of those microwave links, RF black magic noises hehehehe.

[@WasatchIntercept]

Good to see the 5ESS. It was a sad day when the switch manager at Verizon told me all my experience in 11+ years at Sprint was worthless to him. Nice career, while it lasted.

[@Dallas88888]

Thank you so much for showing us the 'magic'.

[@jond1536]

Beautiful, I worked for USWest/Qwest in PDX for several years. and until Qwest (Qworst, Ride the Light baby) closed the office and I loved this job. maybe the only job in my entire 68 years of life I actually loved. I worked there until they closed the CO 22 years ago. (and no I never crammed a customer) I even had one of the largest sales in the entire USWest company on the consumer side, not small business. 27,000 on one call. I would have kept that job for life, not to be (nice thing is naccho spent some time in the big house for his misconduct ) I digress, Thank you for showing all the in and outs of the utility.

[@mikeE0055]

Thanks for this tour! It was like being back at work. I did several jobs at AT&T and CO work was by far my favorite.

[@donpierson]

I am a CO tech for a CLEC. I am also amazed seeing the old tecnology that still exist in some of the CO's. Thanks for the walk through tour. As someone who repaired TV's for 30 years, i appreciate old technology.

[@Agent001]

I've been waiting for a central office tour!

[@itz_mxxri]

To me the equipment in this CO looks modern compared to the equipment I remember back in the 1970's. I was in a CO when the 5ESS was brand new technology, now all of this has become obsolete. Back in the 60's, and 70's when my dad worked at a regional toll center the long distance switching machine called 4A took up 2 whole huge floors of crossbar and every other kind of relays. And the noise was incredible! The first floor was filled with 4w test boards, SF units, L carrier equipment (LMX),and N carrier equipment. And the top (4th) floor was all TD-2 microwave equipment. It was breath taking! Now it's all gone.

[@stealth210]

Great tour of the CO!

[@richardj163]

Thank you for the tour. Love seeing clean CO’s. That location doesn’t look seismic rated :(

[@samjones4327]

Awesome tour! Thank you much!

[@grabasandwich]

4:36 would some of that be HDSL? I was a telco contractor for 15 yrs and went into many rural COs. I have a vague understanding of how the remotes were fed over copper from the bigger COs, but I don't know if HDSL is even used anymore for that.

[@jfbeam]

I don't know how much of it is still out there, but pretty much any T1 over the last 20+ years was an HDSL circuit. (HDSL2 for the last one I had about a decade ago.)

[@ocsrc]

They need to preserve the old equipment and donate it to the museum in Washington State

[@kjisnot]

I used to see Bellcos sell or donate retired equipment to countries in South America. No idea if they still do that. There should be plenty of spare parts to keep things going considering the volume of equipment removed versus actually re-used.

[@waynesanders8874]

The Connections Museum? Great place, well worth a trip.

[@zsteinkamp]

Thanks for doing this project!

[@bobm2331]

How many PRI's on a card these days? T1's are obsolete? Any OPX or POTS circuits still around? Any DMS equipment since Nortel is gone?

[@ToddRock_760]

Excellent tour!!

[@zbcochran1]

Great stuff, keep the videos coming!

[@ewalker3]

you didnt catch the western electric logos on some of those racks that is how old some of that stuff is

[@dieseldragon6756]

You haven't seen the _English Electric_ logos on half of the step-down transformers we've *still* got in service around these parts... ⚡🇬🇧😉

[@coreybabcock2025]

We need more pots lines not fiber optic and can you still get a pots line ?

[@dieseldragon6756]

Probably not, tbh: Openreach/BT are forcing all lines over to IP here by the end of 2025, several EU countries are now IP only, and the only way to get POTS on your phone line is to inherit (i.e: Move into a house with) a phone line that's still POTS. ☎ The thing is: IP is a _lot_ cheaper for carriers/networks to provision...So even in countries like the US where the right of choice is always there (Unlike us 🇬🇧 where they just force us over whether we like it or not) as soon as you're one of the last few on the POTs equipment, your phone bill is going so high even ransoming off Charles IIIrd won't pay for _all_ of it... 💸

[@davel202]

Awesome videos.

[@JJFlores197]

That's awesome stuff!

[@coreybabcock2025]

Arnt co supposed to not have glass direct entrance ? Cause of potential attacks ?

[@inothome]

Not sure about attacks, but I was surprised at the glass door too. Never seen a CO with a glass door!

[@johnhouchins3156]

@@inothome Me neither, and I've been in dozens all over SoCal. COs are "hardened" sites. A glass door just wasn't done.

[@videosuperhighway7655]

I wonder if the Fibre stuff is the ASEoD and NMLI connections.

[@Chris_In_Texas]

We can't decommission the 5E's fast enough! Working as fast as possible to put those out to pasture, or at least to an e-waste place. 👍🤠

[@dieseldragon6756]

Send a few over 'ere, will ya? We've still got some exchanges on SxS! 🏛🇬🇧🤣

[@voiceofjeff]

I started working in radio when I was 15 back in 1977. I was always fascinated with "dedicated broadcast loops". These were specially treated, high quality audio lines that radio stations used to send audio back and forth; usually sending audio from studio to transmitter. They were FM quality and were totally analog. I've never seen any videos about these services that could only be gotten through the local Telco. I can still remember the circuit numbers of the lines my first radio station used to get audio from the studio to the transmitter. They were 56PTNA19644 (Left channel) and 56PTNA19645 (Right channel.). Does anyone know how these high-quality "broadcast loops" worked?

[@bubbahubba121]

Nice Quantar in the rack behind you...which band? Commercial or ham?

[@s3vR3x]

Whoa, crazy they still use lead acid batteries in service!

[@davewood406]

Always will, some places tried to used VRLA or AGM (still lead acid)style like in the cell sites but they don't last the way they're used in Central offices. They only significantly discharge if the generators die. Otherwise they just keep the load supplied while the generators spool up. Pretty much every other chemistry wouldn't have many Ampere Hours after being treated like that for years. These tank cells can sit there for 50 years easy. 25 years after this style of battery(the round type though) were deployed, a study was done, 14,000 batteries (cells actually) were tested and inspected. None of them leaked, only .01% failed and the rest kept 80% of their capacity, which was a predicted number for 25 years in service. There are new chemistry batteries, sure, but for this role, these are better than anything else.

[@tomprovenza7857]

440 Ham radio repeater (Motorola QUANTAR) in your picture?

[@MichaelWallace-oq3wd]

Where is this CO located at?

[@pekkatoikkanen3996]

How much there is Nokia equipment in use in USA? Nokia used to make digital switchgear and such as DX200 from the late 70's and now of course 5G and such

[@k6usy]

I have been inside the Yosemite Valley, Fresno Main, and Clovis Main COs.

[@mikekjellman]

awesome

[@NexxuSix]

4:40 Reminds me of the movie THX-1138

[@coreybabcock2025]

Alpha is a good brand !

[@coreybabcock2025]

I want those battery cables

[@dieseldragon6756]

I want those batteries! 😍 Move over Mr. Musk with your UKCA 🔥 intertia-killing Li-Poo batteries...Pack a car with a load of these, and absolutely *nothing* is stopping you once you're above 40mph... 💥🐘💨😉

[@Stealth55555]

For what use?

[@dieseldragon6756]

@@Stealth55555 Traction drive/augmentation current supply (To move or assist the vehicle) and 💩-loads of weight to make you _unstoppable_ as soon as you're in motion! 🚂💨🤘

[@JonahAdamcik]

We've never once had a POTS outage, I would pay for it forever just to know that the gear is still up. I lose my fiber line constantly.

[@riesjj]

Alcatel MDR-4000s, Sonet Microwave Radio. Full rack for 1 T/R. Today 1 T/R fits in 2 RU....

[@423tech]

I see some Quantars 😎

[@pixelaccount3882]

where is the NSA equipment

[@mikeE0055]

😂 I worked in a CO very much like this for 16 years. I knew what every piece of hardware was for and I can say that any NSA equipment exists at a much more centralized location.

[@capitalfelony305]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

[@dieseldragon6756]

It's behind the twitching curtains at your neighbours house... 👀💨😉 Oh, sorry...That's *our* approach to it, isn't it? 🕵🇬🇧🙃

[@DavidGillooly]

how about dial up modems for the internet?

[@jfbeam]

Almost no one has those anymore. Most of that stuff moved to "winmodems" two decades ago. (done in "software" on dense DSPs. DS3 worth of voice into a 2U box.) The last things I've seen still using dialup... gas pump credit card terminals. (and they mostly use cellular now)

[@waynesanders8874]

Internet dial up modems belonged to the internet provider. We just dialled the number.

[@jeffmoss26]

Sweeet

[@nopdswat]

So you own this att co? What’s the deal here

[@jond1536]

No, he videoed during a tour, said it at the beginning.

[@coreybabcock2025]

Nortel is good

[@gurugee2112]

WAS good. Gone now, merged into Avaya years ago. Sad, they had great products.

[@thecriss88]

Why do all US carriers suck?

[@jshellenberger7876]

Porno - billed at tier backbone level lol #po w USA ii

[@jshellenberger7876]

UsaII USA 2 USA II. #PO

[@kpc5]

For the LAST week i have had this video recommended by YT and i finally watched a few seconds and i hope that your videos do bot get recommended to me anymore, not your fault but it gets annoying after a while your videos get such a high ranking to be top, bye?

[@robertbarnett6879]

first

[@dieseldragon6756]

Oh man...Much of that equipment is *beautiful!* Those microwave units sound just like the compressors on an MF-68! 🚇🔊❤‍🔥 And talking of compressors: I'm not completely _au-fait_ with CO hardware (And in my country our _Telephone exchanges_ are all powered by Tea! ☎🇬🇧🫖😉) but a compressor _for the lines?_ Is that being used to keep water out of trunks via positive air pressure, or is it for some other use? 😇 Nice to have finally found out where the other _non-retro_ PC with a floppy drive is located! 💾 Finally: Those batteries look heavy. as. F. If I had the means to collect a few once the POTS had been completely decommissioned and they were surplus to requirements, I'd want to build myself the most steamroller of an e-bike in history! 😁

[@igfoobar]

The PSTN is now obsolete.