Recently I was reflecting on how the telephone business has changed over the years.  Growing up in rural Northwestern Minnesota in the 1940’s I remember the telephone service we had on the farm – one wire party line service, a switchboard “operator” in town, 14 to 16 customers per line, one wall phone mounted in the kitchen with batteries for the ringer.  Coded ringing – 2 shorts, 3 shorts, a long and a short, etc. a different ring code for each customer on the line and you knew your own ring code and of course everyone else’s on the line.  It was truly party line service – you answered your own ring code and listened to all the others.  It was the first form of a “social communications” network or as they are now called “chat lines”.  Service was affected by the weather storms, “clouds”, and the lightning and rain.

The 1950’s brought improved rural service – a mechanical switch in the central office (you now dialed the local party you wanted to reach), two conductor open wire line service and now party line service was down to 8 parties per a line and with the introduction of tubes to the ringer you heard only 2 rings – your own and one other.  All this was made possible thanks to technology developments of switching machines and  positive and negative ringing on the “tip” or “ring” side of the line.  However, service was affected by the “clouds” and the storms they brought.

I was in North Platte, Nebraska, in 1971 when the last NWB exchange was converted to dial from the old manual Switchboard operation. A new central office building, a #5 X-bar CO switching machine with buried cable serving the rural ranchers with some lines over 50 miles from the CO.  Long line extender units on each line were used to allow for service that far away from the CO.  The service was more resilient to the “clouds” and service was much improved.

Later in the 1970’s I was in Duluth, MN, when NWB had a big rural improvement project at the end of the Gunflint Trail 60 miles north of Grand Marais. The area was served by open wire through the forest and the “clouds” – weather storms, rain and lightning caused many service interruptions and it was difficult for the Canoe Outfitters at the end of the trail near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) to do business with customers with all the service interruptions. I continued to dislike the “clouds”- the storms they brought causing so many service interruptions.  It was a big project with a new Central Office switch, and a lot of buried cable placed through the forest and across some lakes.  During the freeze of the winter the cable was placed across the lakes.  While crossing Loon Lake near the Gunflint Lodge the ice give away and the Caterpillar crawler tractor used in the operation dropped to the bottom of the lake.  It was a big job the following spring to get the unit up from the bottom of the lake and transported to the shoreline. The project when completed provided much improved service to the area.

Toll lines – open wire with “O” carriers used between towns continued to be replaced with microwave service and buried cable with carrier systems to improve long distance service.  And indeed the service was improved – some of the carrier systems were so quiet that light background noise had to be added to the circuits to let users knew they were connected. The microwave system technology that was introduced for long distance service between communities in some cases, depending on the system frequency, was impacted by the “cloud” – storms – rain and lightning.  Some frequencies have a wavelength that is cancelled by rain drops and in this situation the transmitted signal is lost resulting in a service outage.  The “cloud” again with rain and lightning storms causing service outages!

Technology continued to evolve with ESS (Electronic Switching Systems) replacing older X-bar and mechanical step-by-step switch systems.  Fiber Optic cable had greatly increased communications capacity.

Not only has the technology changed, but companies have changed as well with divestiture of AT&T and subsequent mergers and name changes of companies.  The old NWB, Mountain Bell and Pacific NW became USWest, then Qwest, then Century Link, then Lumen.  Organizations and services continue to change – the introduction of cell phone service resulted in a major revamping of telephone service resulting in significant loss of the traditional landline (tip and ring) service. And the service models offered by Lumen today by-in-large I do not understand!

Recently I was visiting with a friend who is a software engineer for a company that provides Call Answering Services; the call centers are located in several global locations.  His company uses Lumen Fiber Optic services; however when he started explaining the services models, the technology was way beyond my level of understanding.

Regarding cell phones, I like everyone have adapted to cell phone use.  However we still have the same landline service in our home we had in the 1980’s.  I have to admit that for the most part cell phones are convenient, however I keep getting messages on my screen asking me to join the “Cloud”, thank goodness they give me an option “join now” or “skip for now”. I use the skip option, why would I want the “cloud”?  The “cloud” brings rain and lightning storms and they create telephone service problems and I don’t want my cell phone service interrupted by storms

Our Retiree Association has continued to change as well.  In the past few years we have not had the legal challenges and costs that the association had in the early days and that has resulted in a decision by the Board to discontinue dues collection in 2024.  And I am sure other changes will be forthcoming in the future.  The issues effecting Retiree Benefits now seem to be National in scope and the NRLN (National Retiree Legislative Network) in Washington is working with Congress on legislation that will protect our earned Pension Benefits, Social Security, Medicare and other earned benefits.  Recently we all received a letter from the NRLN updating us on activities and asking for a donation.  The NRLN does good work on our behalf and since you no longer pay dues to our association I encourage you to be positive and support the NRLN work in Washington.

Things just keep changing!! 

Have a great summer and God Bless.

Roger Borowicz