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                    $         THE HISTORY OF ESS          $
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	Of all the new 1960s wonders of telephone technology -
satellites, ultra modern Traffic Service Positions (TSPS) for
operators, the picturephone, 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 development 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 phew 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 central 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, maintenance 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 central 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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