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11. What can you tell us about GTE and digital switches?
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I worked for GTE California for about 25 years, starting when I was 18 years old. I worked my way up beginning at the very bottom rung and eventually working in the central offices (where you get your dial tone, and all call processing takes place).
I had injured my knee climbing telephone poles and they eventually grounded me from climbing, so they allowed me to go into the central office to one of their first analog switches.
Being an avid and quick learner they eventually sent me to schools to learn how to run and repair their digital switch. I requested the graveyard shift as that was the only time you could actually perform maintenance on them.
When it came to troubleshooting and repair, I was the best they had, and they knew it. They ended up sending me to over 1,000 hours of training so that I was at the level 3 analyst qualified. That means I could read a hexadecimal printout and be able to find the one wire on the backplane that was grounded and causing that stuck all 1's.