UTAH CENTRAL OFFICES
SALT LAKE CITY "MAIN" CENTRAL OFFICE
QWEST TANDEM and AT&T TOLL OFFICE
| Back to Other States main page |
|
Thanks to Mike in Michigan for photos
The Salt Lake City "Main" central office serves Qwest as the main regional tandem and AT&T for long distance and toll services. A two story operator assisted central office was originally built by Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company (later Mountain Bell and then becoming US West in 1983) in the 1939 and using a rare example (for Utah) of art deco architecture. The office was expanded with two more stories in 1947 when the use of telephone surged after World War II and eventually housed switching and radio equipment for AT&T Long Lines. Mountain Bell added an additional building for their tandem switch in the early 1970s. Salt Lake City became an AT&T Long Lines microwave hub when TD-2 microwave service was introduced in the early 1960s. Unlike other AT&T downtown toll offices Salt Lake City could not be a "major" hub due to topography and location in the valley. Rather, the Salt Lake City Junction site took this function and had direct microwave connections to Salt Lake City main. Salt Lake City was a sectional center in the hierarchy switching plan and had direct trunk groups to the Boise, Twin Falls, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Provo, Richfield and Cedar City primary offices and the Denver Regional center. early coax cable routes from Salt lake City were to Sacramento, Pocatello, Cheyenne, Denver and Los Angeles. AT&T introduced 4ESS service to the office in April of 1982 and is considered an international gateway with connection to Canada. Today the CO has major fiber connections to Ogden, Elko, Reno, Las Vegas, Cheyenne, Denver, Boise and Portland. (Thanks to D. Gibson for some of this info)
Old Exchanges: DAvis 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, JAckson 1, 2, 4, 6 and ELgin 0, 5.
Microwave paths from Salt Lake City were: Salt Lake City Junction and Camp Williams
Salt Lake City tandem looking toward the west
From the southwest original building at the right newer at the left.
Overall building layout showing various additions.
Original Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph building.
Newer Mountain Bell addition adjacent to the original building.
Microwave structure at top of building.
Another view of microwave structure. (Photo D. Gibson)
Back to: TELEPHONE CENTRAL OFFICES