atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Slick Line on Old Switch troubles

Hi, I have been having trouble with my landline Bellsouth/AT&T line lately and support has not been able to help me. First of all I found out I am being served by a SLICK or SLC96 by the Bell tech, no the switch my number belong too is a WECO #1AESS. I think thats true because I am getting the clicking during call setup and dialtone setup, but how would I be hearing this if I am on a SLC96, how do those works? Now I don't think they have been maintaining the switch well because half the calls i made I have to redail because of static, I am about to switch to Charter Digital Voice or VOIP. I am getting the 6.0 DSL service which is good. Can you explain how my phone is delievered to me, I am over 20 miles away from the WECO #1AESS switch.

Here is a recording I made from my phone and submitted to Phone World

https://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/misc/ca_call_progress.mp3

https://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/misc/ca_call_waiting.mp3

Can you also tell me when they usualy replace switches to newer digital switches? Thanks so much

Locust welcome to the board.

What it sounds like to me is You are served by a pair gain system. What this means is your service leaves the central office switch on a T1 level..actually multiple t1's and is brought to a slc96 in a gr-303 format. Which is where it is broken down into copper and the DT is brought to your site, the slc is probably located fairly close to your location. That click you are hearing is a very good indicator of trouble on the T1's feeding the slc96. I would have the bell south tech, have one of his switch techs pull the PM's in his switch for the T1's feeding that slc.. I am willing to be they are taking errors. The tech may also need to replace your line card in the SLC, but I am leaning more towards a T1 issue. As far as the replacement of your switch, I am really not sure how they decide when it is time to upgrade.

Good luck

I’m not certain if the 1A is capable of interfacing directly with the remote terminal of a pair gain system. It is not a digital switch. They may have made some modifications that I’m not aware of. However, my guess is that there is a channel bank in the central office as well. There are channel units at both the remote terminal and at the C.O. Are any of your neighbors having a similar problem? If it is a single line I’d suspect a channel unit at either the RT or the COT. If it is several lines, I’d suspect a common card at either the RT or the COT. I’m not surprised that tech support cannot help since SLC96 is manufactured discontinued.

That's definitely service from a #1AESS for sure as is indicated by the click right before dial tone starts. When using a SLC96, there is no noticable difference in the sound. With other pair gain equipment, this click may be filtered and you just immediately hear dial tone upon going off-hook, similar to the characteristics of a Nortel DMS.

The 1A does interface in the central office with a channel bank using FX0 cards and FXS cards are used in the remote terminal. The channel bank and remote terminal are simply a transport medium for the analog line(s) leaving the 1AESS.

Thanks, Ed. That was the oint I wanted to make. The digital did not terminate directly in the 1A. It goes into a channel back (COT)and drops from digital to analog prior to going to the 1A. It is not a direct digital interface.

But my car is terminated in the 1A eventually though?

Your car? Say what?

Oops, sorry, I was going to put the name of my phone but stoopped and forgot to erase. My line is terminated thorugh the #1AESS? That's not like a step by step though, I wouldnt think so because we had those while I was growing up and took like 30 seconds to make a call

Do you mean "carrier" :confused:

There are no more step offices left in the United States or crossbar and panel offices for that matter. Everything is electronic (analog) or digital for the most part, although some small independents that are not receiving funding from RUS might still have other switches in operation. For the most part, #1AESS is about the oldest electronic switch that's still out there except for perhaps some older GTE EAX switches. The original #1 ESS went into service in Succassauna, NJ in 1965. The 1A, developed in the mid 1970's, offered many enhancements, such as caller ID, and custom calling features like forwarding and call waiting. There are still plenty of them out there because they don't break!

With the #1 or #1A, the dial tone leaves the CO switch on two wires. It's then sent to a copper cable pair or to a channel bank for conversion to pair-gain purposes. It's then broken back out of that circuit at the SLC96 and to traditional copper for the rest of the route to your premises.

Your line is definitely being served by a 1AESS, but how BellSouth (at&t) gets it to your premises is anybody's guess.