While surfing the web, I happened across this site, and the Trivia Forum. Here’s my take on the issues discussed, but first some background. I started my 40 year telephony career in 1963 as a Western Electric Installer on #5 X-Bar (2 wire flat spring and wire spring), as well as #4 X-Bar (flat spring), and Step. In 1971 I went to work for Stromberg Carlson., as a #5 X-Bar installer, which SC was installing throughout the US in independent telcos. This was Northern Electric X-Bar, identical to the Western equipment, except its color – WE was gray while NE was green. I spent 32 years with SC, eventually retiring in 2003 as Manager of SW Development on the DCO.
Western Electric was the supply side of AT&T until the breakup of Bell. They became Lucent, with a separate stock offering. In November 2006, they merged with France’s Alcatel, with a new stock offering. It’s generally thought that WE only supplied switching equipment to Bell Operating Companies, however, they did sell to Rochester Telephone (an independent), and to New England Tell, which in some ways was considered an Independent.
Stromberg Carlson had a checkered history. When I started in 1971, they were owned by General Dynamics, and in fact I draw a GD pension because of that. The headquarters was located in Rochester , NY. For many years, their main telephony product was the X-Y switch, which was deployed in about half of all independent telephone companies in the US. This was a step by step design that operated in a horizontal shelf, unlike the vertical bread boxes of the Strowger switches produced by WE. SC developed the ESC electronic cross reed switch in the late 60’s early 70’s, and eventually the DCO, a fully digital switch. In 1977 SC moved its’ headquarters to Tampa, Florida, and all it’s manufacturing to Lake Mary, Florida. The DCO was the first class five digital switch to go into service in the US. This occurred on July 17, 1977, in Richmond Hill Ga., where I was the lead Installer on that project. In the 70’s SC also developed the DBX, a digital PBX product. It’s not generally known, but the DCO and DBX, while developed in parallel, were two completely different designs, especially in the switching matrix. In fact I can not recall any common parts, with possible exception of power supplies. Both designs did use DEC processors and Assembly Level software language, but used different processor types.
SC was sold to United Technologies in 1982, a marriage that lasted about one year. UTC was after the DBX product, but had no desire for the DCO. By this time the DCO was deployed in a number of independent telcos, in direct competition to Northern Electric’s (NORTEL) DMS equipment. SC’s customer base was almost exclusively the small independent telcos in the US, first with the X-Y, then ESC, and eventually the DCO. With a few exceptions, DCO’s were not purchased by United, Sprint, or GTE. Later when the smaller independents were being absorbed by the larger ones, a number of DCO sites were picked up by what became Verizon and others. A number of DCO’s were installed in Canada, and off shore, notably in American Samoa, Korea, and Guam. In the mid 80’s the DCO underwent Bellcore evaluation and was purchased by Bell Operating companies, notably Bell South.
For most of its 100 year history, SC supplied a full range of products to the telephone operating companies – not just switching systems - but operator systems, test gear, tools, cable, poles, and telephone sets. In the 80’s, SC sold their Charlottesville, Va. telephone manufacturing complex to COMDIAL. By then, SC’s major product was the DCO, including the Class Five switch, and a version designed as a MSTO for cellular networks, and as a Carrier Switch for the smaller long distant carriers.
In 1983 SC and its DCO was purchased by Plessey of England. They wanted access to the US market as they too had a digital switch called System X. Plessey failed to understand that US standards were completely different from European standards, and it would have required a major redesign of the System X, before it could be deployed in the US. In 1986 Plessey was bought by a consortium of the UK’s GPT and Siemens. In 1990, Siemens took full control of SC, and renamed the company Siemens – Stromberg Carlson. As with Plessey, Siemens wanted access to SC’s customer base so that they could deploy their digital switch, the EWSD. At least Siemens had done their homework, and the EWSD was compliant (almost) with US standards. However, a majority of the smaller SC customers refused to buy the EWSD, and insisted that they would only go with the DCO and it’s upgrades, or go with DMS switches. Thus Siemens marketed both the DCO and EWSD narrow band switches throughout the 90’s and early 00’s. With the advent of broadband and soft switches, the DCO was at last on the short end of the stick, as Siemens refused to redesign it for today’s telephony environment. Eventually the Stromberg Carlson name was dropped. In 2006, what was left of the core SC group consisting of a few DCO engineers and support personnel was sold to Genrand of Dallas Texas.
The above is only a small part of the total picture as far as SC is concerned, but those stories will have to wait till later.
