However, you need to strongly consider what kind of telephone system you want to use, as often mobile phone networks can be unreliable and can cause a range of issues that can stop your business from functioning correctly. The different systems that are available to your company are endless and include; mobiles, landlines, self-hosted VoIP and cloud-based VoIP.
Each one has its pros and cons, so you have to weigh up what is best for you and your company — which could very well require a robust mobile phone telecommunication focus rather than VoIP. In the modern age, switchboards exist and operate in generally the same way but with modern equipment and electronics, but the big rooms and hundreds of operators can still be seen.
International Wired Call: The switchboard will likely have access to a physical cable that is connected to France via the north sea, so these types of calls are trickier but still quite easy to access. She could hear if there was a call in progress "busy" or "engaged". Once the call was established she would restore the drop shutter to its position, then handle another call. A firm called American Electric soon invented a system that rang the called number as soon as the plug was fully inserted.
At the end of the call, callers were expected to "ring off" - ring their generators to signal the operator they had finished. She would then remove the plugs. Although male telephonists boys were used in the early days, young ladies were soon found preferable as they were quieter, more stable, not cheeky to the customers, and could be paid less. The telephone exchange was one of the few forms of employment for a young lady for many decades, and the girls were ruthlessly supervised.
They were expected, of course, to resign on marrying. The unit hanging from the top of the board is a transmitter for the operator to talk into. It was soon replaced with the operator's "head and breast set", an early earphone and microphone set that could be plugged into a special socket on the switchboard.
At the top of the board are the drop shutters to indicate an incoming call. Under these are the panel of sockets for each subscriber's line, into which the cords were plugged. The cords hanging from the bottom of the board are the connecting cords, weighted at the bottom so they will automatically retract back to the flat shelf when disconnected. One improvement to the system was introduced steadily from the late s, and was almost universal for larger exchanges by the s. It allowed a bank of batteries at the exchange to power the entire system, doing away with the batteries in the customer's phone.
This reduced maintenance and allowed the telephones to be made smaller. Signalling the exchange was done by simply picking up the handset. As current flowed through the phone,it turned on a small lamp on the exchange switchboard.
There were different versions of the system introduced by many manufacturers, each having its advantages and technical improvements. It still required a room full of operators to switch the calls, though. The growth in the number of customers meant that the switchboards were getting bigger. So big, in fact, that the Multiple system had to be invented so an operator could handle a few hundred customers and pass calls to another switchboard that handled the other party's number.
The exchange was now taking on the look that it would keep for the best part of the twentieth century. Left: Manual exchange, Photo courtesy Marvin Hodges. The photo gives an idea just how large and crowded a manual exchange could be in terms of numbers of staff. Remember, this is only one shift.
As well as the telephonists working other shifts, there were technicians, linesmen and administrative staff. The telephone company was a major employer in most communities. The exchange was now a major building in its own right, not the small "office" of the earlier days.
Typically the exchange would have a huge room full of switchboards and operators, a separate room for the power supply, generators and batteries, offices for the administrative staff, and a room for the technical and maintenance staff. The incoming cables, which could now be many inches thick, were split up and wired to a Main Distribution Frame. Technicians could test lines or connect and disconnect them at this point. A pair of wires for each phone line led from the MDF to the appropriate switchboard.
Left: Incoming cables from the cable tunnels were brought up from underground into the exchange. These cables were usually lead-sheathed and often pressurised with dry air to keep moisture out. From Poole "Practical Telephony Handbook" Left: The cables were broken out of their sheath and each pair of wires was connected to a set of terminals on a Main Distribution Frame.
The MDF also carried fuses. It allowed lines to be connected or disconnected , and tested for faults. In bigger exchanges the MDF often occupied a room of its own.
Pairs of wires from the MDF were led usually overhead to the switchboards. Photo courtesy Marvin Hodges, ca As exchanges continued to grow, it was obvious that manual switching could not last. One comment of the s was that at the present rate of growth it would be only a few years before half the population of Britain was switching calls for the other half. Enter Almon Strowger, a disgruntled Kansas City undertaker who was convinced that the town telephone operator was passing business calls to his rival undertaker.
He invented a practical system that allowed a caller to select the number they wanted to call without any intervention from the operator. The heart of his invention, as it was finally put into production, was a switch that had a ten by one hundred matrix of contacts with telephone lines wired to them.
As a user dialed a number the dial had to be invented too an arm with an electrical contact would step up the rows until it reached the row corresponding to the first digit of the telephone number. It would then step across to the contact that corresponded to the next digit s. The call would then pass to another switch which would do the next digits if necessary, and so on. At the end of the call all the switches would drop to the bottom of their travel and be ready for the next call.
On a basic level, it looks a bit like this:. A private telephone exchange is often referred to as a private branch exchange PBX. These units allow the internal transfer of calls, while providing a limited number of outbound call lines trunks. Internal calls can be made from deskphone to deskphone, but one of the biggest benefits of a PBX is being able to transfer one external call to a range of multiple internal numbers.
Most PBXs come with an auto-attendant, which allows callers to select which line extension they want to connect to. An analogue PBX only sends and receives phone calls via traditional copper wiring. It acts as an internal exchange, connecting calls within the office, while also sending calls out to the local exchange.
This means you can choose to make calls over the landline, or the internet, and you have a backup if the phone line or broadband network goes down. A hosted PBX can be far more cost-effective than a 2-line or 4-line phone system , as well as being low maintenance — a real win-win.
The telephone exchange is a vital part of a traditional telephone system. Cutting out the exchange, or even the telephone network entirely, is far more cost-effective for your business. Not only does it make local calls cheaper, but it makes long distance calls cheaper, too. VoIP providers often supply packages that include unlimited local calls and international calls to certain countries, making it easier for you to control your costs.
Fill in our online form with a few details about your business, and the suppliers that best match your requirements will be in touch with quotes. How does a telephone exchange system work?
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