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The history of ESS
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The History of ESS
By : Lex Luthor // Edited By : \\//
Of all the new 1960s wonders of telephone technology - satellites, ultra
modern Traffic Service Positions (TSPS) for operators, the picture phone, and
so on - the one that gave Bell Labs the most trouble, and unexpectedly became
the greatest development effort in Bell System's history, was the perfection
of an electronic switching system, or ESS.
It may be recalled that such a system was the specific end in view when
the project that had culminated in the invention of the transistor had been
launched back in the 1930s. After successful accomplishment of that planned
miracle in 1947-48, further delays were brought about by financial stringency
and the need for further development of the transistor itself. In the early
1950s, a Labs team began serious work on electronic switching. As early as
1955, Western Electric became involved when five engineers from the Hawthorne
works were assigned to collaborate with the Labs on the project.
The president of AT&T in 1956, wrote confidently, "At Bell Labs, development
of the new electronic switching system is going full speed ahead. We are sure
this will lead to many improvements in service and also to greater efficiency.
The first service trial will start in Morris, Ill., in 1959." Shortly
thereafter, Kappel said that the cost of the whole project would probably be
$45 million.
But it gradually became apparent that the developement of a commercially
usable electronic switching system - in effect, a computerized telephone
exchange - presented vastly greater technical problems than had been
anticipated, and that, accordingly, Bell Labs had vastly underestimated both
the time and the investment needed to do the job.
The year 1959 passed without the promised first trial at Morris, Illinois;
it was finally made in November 1960, and quickly showed how much more work
remained to be done. As time dragged on and costs mounted, there was a concern
at AT&T and something approaching panic at Bell Labs. But the project had to go
forward; by this time the investment was too great to be sacrificed, and in any
case, forward projections of increased demand for telephone service indicated
that within a few years a time would come when, without the quantum leap in
speed and flexibility that electronic switching would provide, the national
network would be unable to meet the demand.
In November 1963, an all-electronic switching system went into use at the
Brown Engineering Company at Cocoa Beach, Florida. But this was a small
installation, essentially another test installation, serving only a single
company. Kappel's tone on the subject in the 1964 annual report was, for him,
an almost apologetic: "Electronic switching equipment must be manufactured in
volume to unprecedented standards of reliability. To turn out the equipment
economically and with good speed, mass production methods must be developed;
but, at the same time, there can be no loss of precision..." Another year and
millions of dollars later, on May 30, 1965, the first commercial electric
centeral office was put into service at Succasunna, New Jersey.
Even at Succasunna, only 200 of the town's 4,300 subscribers initially had
the benefit of electronic switching's added speed and additional services, such
as provision for three party conversations and automatic transfer of incoming
calls. But after that, ESS was on its way. In January 1966, the second
commercial installation, this one serving 2,900 telephones, went into service
in Chase, Maryland. By the end of 1967 there were additional ESS offices in
California, Connecticut, Minnesota, Georgia, New York, Florida, and
Pennsylvania; by the end of 1970 there were 120 offices serving 1.8 million
customers; and by 1974 there were 475 offices serving 5.6 million customers.
The difference between conventional switching and electronic switching
is the difference between "hardware" and "software"; in the former case,
maintenence is done on the spot, with screwdriver and pliers, while in the case
of electronic switching, it can be done remotely, by computer, from a centeral
point, making it possible to have only one or two technicians on duty at a time
at each switching center. The development program, when the final figures were
added up, was found to have required a staggering four thousand man-years of
work at Bell Labs and to have cost not $45 million but $500 million!
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