On Apr 6, 3:10*pm, "Adam H. Kerman" wrote:
Just out of curiosity, do you have any opinion regarding the service
and equipment quality of GTE/Automatic Electric vs. the Bell System/
Western Electric?

I have no clue.

Here is a 1955 booklet describing AE before GTE merger (12 meg).
Notice their focus on the Strowger switch and subtle implication that
it's superior to common control.

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/...10538&Itemid=2


Here is 1952 AE brochure for a PAX (10 meg). Notice they tout that it
is owned, not rented, and that it is separate from outside telephone
service "keeping lines free for important internal calls".

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/... 3680&Itemid=2

I think our postwar city public schools widely used the AE 32A38
system which for supported very low traffic but many lines (up to
100). There was a common talk path. Phones in classrooms had no
dial, and lifting it rang the main office phone. The main office
phone could dial any classroom. I suspect this system was relatively
inexpensive bare bones but highy functional for the job since there
wasn't much intercom usage within the school. (It would've been nice
to have saved a unit whenever the schools dumped them to a more modern
system.)

A P.S. for the SEPTA transit (ex PTC) PAX: The system began to fail
from age in the 1980s. New reduced Centrex pricing allowed SEPTA to
have Bell re-equip its privarte network. Employees who worked in
places like towers and cashier booths liked the upgrade because now
they could receive inward calls from home, not previously possible
with the private system.

The City of Phila once had a big PAX system, such as to support police
street corner call boxes. I suspect they merely abandoned much of it
since Bell phones provided as much or more function, and police radios
made callboxes obsolete. During the 1980s-1990s they also abandoned
the corner fire callboxes due to a very high incidence of false alarms
and that almost everyone had access to a phone.