Class 4 Telephone Switch - History

History

Before the Bell System divestiture, Class 4 switches in a telephone office that had operators present were called "toll centers;" if no operators were present, they were called "toll points." Either type of Class 4 switch might be referred to as a "toll switch." These terms were used because long-distance, or "toll," calls had to pass through Class 4 switches, where the billing for the calls would be handled.

Class 4 switches at that time often had an associated Traffic Service Position System (TSPS) to handle operator-assisted calls. TSPS automated many functions previously handled by the local operator with a "cordboard" telephone switch, such as certain aspects of coin-operated telephone calls. It also allowed the telephone company to route operator calls to remote locations, rather than requiring operators at each switch.

After the divestiture, as human operators became less common, the terms changed. Today, a Class 4 switch that connects Class 5 switches to the long-distance network is called an "access tandem." A Class 4 switch that connects Class 5 switches to each other, but not to the long-distance network, is called a "local tandem."

The majority of Class 4 switches in the Bell System during the 1950s and 1960s used crossbar switches, such as the Crossbar Tandem (XBT) variant of the Number One Crossbar Switching System, or 1XB switch. The Number 4 Crossbar ("4XB") Tandem switch was used in the North American toll network from 1943 until the 1990s, when it was replaced by more modern digital switching equipment, such as the Lucent 4ESS switch or the Nortel DMS-200. The last 4XB switch in the United States was installed in 1976.

During the 1980s, Class 4 tandem switches were converted to deal only with high-speed digital four-wire circuit connections: T1, T3, OC-3, etc. The two-wire local line connections to individual telephones were relegated to the Class 5 switches. By the dawn of the 21st century, almost all other switches also supported four-wire connections.

Modern tandem switches, like other classes of telephone switch, are digital, and use time-division multiplexing (TDM) to carry circuit-switched telephone calls. Tandems were more quickly converted to TDM than the Class 5 end-offices were. During the transition to digital switching in the 1980s and 1990s, when both TDM and traditional "space division" switches were in use, American phone company employees often referred tandems as "TDM switches" as a result.

In the past, most of the accounting, billing management, and call record-keeping was handled by the tandem switches. During the last third of the 20th century, these tasks were performed by the Class 5 end-office switches.