Comment by 13of40 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 13of40 | Hacker News Reader

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Quick question for you: I've noticed that in most cities there's at least one nondescript, windowless brick building with 70's era architecture and some connection to a telephone company. Examples: [1] [2] [3] Now, those were probably made back in the days when everything was built from mechanical switches, or at best, transistors. What do they do with all that space when modern, miniaturized tech comes to town? Are they just filled with cobwebs and bits of ancient mainframe computers nowadays?

[1] https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6767102,-122.2095201,3a,75y,...

[2] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Museum+of+Communications/@...

[3] https://www.google.com/maps/place/AT%26T+Long+Lines+Building...

- Some of that space is now filled with networking gear, since phone companies are ISPs via DSL, FiOS, etc. Since this implies a lot of internet bandwidth coming into the building, they might also lease some of the space and network capacity to other companies who co-locate their own servers and networking gear there.

- The backhaul equipment that connects cellular networks to the landline phone/internet networks may also be in those buildings. (Some big carriers, e.g., Verizon, provide both landline and cellular services.)

- Some of that space is taken up by backup power supplies (batteries and/or generators) to keep the system going during power outages.

- Some of the space may be used for storage of supplies used for maintaining the local phone network.

Often, replaced with fiber patch bays, DSLAMs, etc. Then you have the same gear duplicated for CLECs that have colocation. At one point AT&T was claiming that COs were full/that there was no more space for CLEC colocation.

In larger cities some were repurposed as MSCs for cell service.

I truly have no clue. My direct experience is in network operations in the satellite communications industry, which tangentially exposed me to more traditional telcos. I couldn't speak with authority on what those buildings do nowadays.

What you're describing is the ILEC CO.

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