One of the few independent telephone companies that still exists today in 2025! Granite State Telephone, originally called Chester Telephone Company and founded in 1877! It seems to be easier finding info on these smaller companies cause they haven't changed hands 10 million times like the New England Telephone run exchanges. Chester NH went from a magneto switchboard to direct dial in 1964. I'm fairly sure that they have a soft switch now since the lines I've used in Chester go through asap and the wait for dialtone is very minimal. My best guess is that they fully cut over to a soft switch around 2021 when 988 dialing had to change the dialing plan from 7 digit to mandatory 10 digit dialing.
Derry had magneto telephone service from around the late 1800s until February 12th 1931 when they switched over to a "common battery" switchboard. It was eventually expanded to around 22 operators in the late 1950s. November 6th 1960 was the first day that Derry switched over to dial telephone service. From November 6th 1960 to August 16th 1980, Derry NH was using an electro meIchanical telephone switch. For local 432 and 434 calls people were able to dial on 5 digits until they switched to #1ESS in 1980! t seems around 1978 the building was remodeled and in the early 80s they added the extra brick back part of the building for the ESS equipment to take place. "there will be a different dial tone" a quote from "Derry News" meaning that Derry had old school dialtone until they switched over to ESS in 1980. On November 9th, 1996, the Town of Derry switched from the #1AESS over to the #5ESS system which is still in use today!
Dunbarton went from a magneto switchboard straight to direct dial in 1961 (I'm assuming a step or XY). Their website claims to have "gone digital" in 1981. I'm not sure if that means they had a DMS or a computer controlled analog switch. They had a remote DMS installed in 1995. From what I have gathered, the town of Dunbarton had a remote DMS up until sometime in 2021 they switched it over to a packet switch as one of the switchmen told me that they didn't want to implement 988 dialing on the DMS and it was due for an upgrade.
From what I know so far, Manchester had a XBT in the late 70s and I think a few 4ESS's are still in place today. It seems as if a lot of end offices in Manchester still allowed you to dial on 5 digits up until the late 70s? I'm still researching that specifically.
Another independent telephone company! Merrimack County Telephone, now owned by TDS telecom. Had a stepper switch installed sometime in the early 1960s. I think 1961? The central office was and is still currently located next to the NH Telephone Museum!
The Granite State Telephone headquarters! They had an old Jane Barbe weathercron machine running up until 2004! I got that info off of an old Evan Doorbell recording. I might ask him directly for more info regarding Granite State Telephone (now known as Granite State Communications).
A fairly typical New England Telephone territory that had a number 5 crossbar installed in the early 60s and used up until around 1992. This number 5 crossbar is still operational at the Telephone Museum in Ellsworth Maine! An interesting fact about this particular crossbar is that it did not support touch tone dialing natively and had aftermarket tone converters bolted onto the sides of the frames to allow it to support touch tones phones to work!
This exchange had a rare number 3 crossbar (small number #5XB and similar to the 3ESS) installed in the late 1970s and used up until around the mid 90s?
Island Telephone CO. Another independent! They had a CX-100 phone switch up until around the mid 1990s. The entire central office was transported to the Maine Telephone museum and is still fully functional! The Northern Electric CX-100 can have a maximum of 100 lines it's an all relay switch that originally had radio or satellite trunks to communicate off of the island.
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