On Feb 14, 11:44 pm, mm wrote:
On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:03:28 -0500, mm
wrote:



Did dial-up ever cause a shortage of phone lines? I never heard that,

I shouldn't have used the word "lines". I mean whatever is needed at
the central stations to keep a phone call running.

Isn't that what there is a shortage of when someone gets a fast busy
on a local phone call?

I'm sure some resources are used in addition to my phone and the line
running to my local central station.

What it takes at the central office to switch a local call is a
central office switch. In the US, most common is the Lucent 5ESS, std
version of which handles 10K lines. The switch connects local calls
to local lines, and local calls going outside that CO to digital lines
crossing regions. During the dial up, fax, etc line expansion days,
Lucent made buckoo bucks selling these to handle the new lines. It
was a big multi-million piece of hardware, that was overpriced and
nothing special, but telcos bought em, right and left. It fueled
Lucent's big growth and success in the 90s.







but I am surprised if the phone companies had the capacity to fulfill
maybe a 50 to 300% increase in demand over the course of 10 years,
from soon after dial-up's startup to its peak. There are people who
spent maybe a half hour a day on the phone before the net, who must
have spent 12 hours a day on the phone/modem after the net. Combined
with all those who only used it for an hour extra, that's an enormous
increase.- Hide quoted text -

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