A look at how telephone numbers were dialed in Buffalo with "named exchange" dialing right before the conversion in October, 1960. This is a work in progress and will be updated.
A look at how telephone numbers were dialed in Buffalo with "named exchange" dialing right before the conversion in October, 1960. This is a work in progress and will be updated.
A look at how telephone numbers were dialed in Buffalo with "named exchange" dialing right before the conversion in October, 1960. This is a work in progress and will be updated.
A look at how telephone numbers were dialed in Buffalo with "named exchange" dialing right before the conversion in October, 1960. This is a work in progress and will be updated.
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Buffalo Dial Plan circa 1960
Curtis R Anderson July 5, 2010
Abstract Buffalo, New York was one of the last cities in the United States to convert from “named exchange” dialing to the seven digit dialing we are used to today. Here is a look at what local calling in Buffalo looked like at the time of the conversion. This is a work in progress. Additions will be made as they are discov- ered. Corrections and suggestions are always welcome.
1 Rationale As the nation emerged from World War II, demand for telephone service in- creased. With it, people were moving away from their friends and family. Busi- nesses were expanding with the post-WWII economy, making more calls as nec- essary to support their expansion. As with radio, the fledgling medium television could share space on the long distance telephone network, but needed sustantially more bandwidth than a radio program. This meant a need for a more complex telephone network, which also meant more long distance calling. Demand for long distance calling increased faster than operators could be trained to perform functions such as toll accounting, taking the number to call, etc. It became appar- ent that the telephone user would have to dial his own long distance calls. This resulted in the North American Numbering Plan [1]. With this, a need to dial ten digits across the United States and Canada was realized. Well into the late 1950s as customer initiated toll dialing was being deployed to customers, some cities like Buffalo continued to use “named exchange” dialing for local calls. A number such as “UNiversity 2368” would be dialed. Such a number could not be dialed directly by a customer, even one which could directly
1 dial a toll call. These calls would still be handled by the long distance operator, often reached by dialing 211 or a similar service code. The outward toll operator in this case would ask the Buffalo inward toll operator to dial UNiversity 2368 for the customer.
2 The Topology Figure 1 on the following page shows how the exchanges were converted from names to numbers. The chart is grouped by central office and subgrouped by presumed switch type. Some of the exchange names are not named by any type of local street or landmark in the vicinity of the central office. It is presumed that these exchanges which were meant to service post-WWII growth in the suburban areas were of the No. 5 crossbar type. These will be documented somewhat in § 3.
3 Telephone Switch Types
The author has had an opportunity to terminate telephone calls on some of the exchanges listed in figure 1 on the following page during the 1980s. In the best order of recollection, Figure 2 on page 4 is a partial list of switch types by ex- change code.
BFLONYFR BFLONYSP HMBGNYHB CLeveland TL 2 882 FAirview TA 4 824 EMerson NH 9 649 MAdison TL 5 855 SOuth TA 5 825 MOhawk TL 6 856 TRiangle TA 2 822 NIagara TL 7 857 WOodlawn TA 3 823 WAshington TL 4 854
Figure 1: Buffalo Dialplan Topology
3 839 1981–04 Called to Snyder at this time and recognized the No. 5 crossbar ringback cadence. 836 1986–03 Called a college classmate. Recognized No. 5 crossbar ringback. 838 1986–03 Called businesses in the vicinity of University at Buffalo. Recognized No. 5 crossbar ringback. 674 1986–08 Called a bulletin board system in West Seneca. Recog- nized No. 5 crossbar ringback. 892 1987–02 Called a bulletin board system run at Erie County Med- ical Center and noticed extra clicks before hearing the older style “metropolitan” modulated ringback tone as- sociated with No. 1 crossbar. Presumably the last of the No. 1 crossbar switches operated in Buffalo. 823 2006–06 A discussion with my “significant other” regarding re- membering that her family changed a telephone number from 824–XXXX to 823–XXXX in the early ’70s to take advantage of tone dialing. This would have made 823 a No. 5 crossbar and 824 most likely a No. 1 crossbar and less likely a panel system.
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