That Ericsson equipment is an AXE10 digital telephone exchange, still in use. Soon to be decommissioned in 2025, along with System X (the other exchange type BT has, originally made by Plessey). Most of the other stuff in there is broadband equipment for both BT and other broadband providers.
Is the copper network being decommissioned completely, will be a big task to go fibre up to all the dps in the network, though in my area fibre is up poles in the OH network.
@@dav01kar Street cabs FTTC have fibre to the cabinet & then copper to the house. They have fibred all the poles & joint boxes round here, then they run overhead or underground fibre from the Connectorised Block Terminals (CBT's)
@@ccctube5721 You try and get as much use out of the equipment as possible. You don't keep buying something new every year as technology evolves, it costs millions. The landline equipment was installed in the early 80's and is still going. The large spaces in the exchange was for the old Strowger equipment. It took up whole floors. Technology gets smaller with time. This is the norm.
@@ccctube5721 You try and get as much use out of the equipment as possible. You don't keep buying something new every year as technology evolves, it costs millions. The landline equipment was installed in the early 80's and is still going. The large spaces in the exchange was for the old Strowger equipment. It took up whole floors. Technology gets smaller with time. This is the norm.
Building is catalogue as government protected site, if you ever get caught on these places, I’m 100% sure you’ll be deeply in trouble and there’s evidence.
LLU is local loop un bundling. The hot room was the frame where phone line pairs used to be patched to the analogue switch gear. Card readers you saw were OBAS and Proximity (operational building access system and proximity control system) developed by initial shorrocks and supported by BT Security where I used to work. BT Open Reach or OLO providers (other licenced operators like BSkB, Virgin, TalkTalk etc) would have a proximity card to automatically access areas when they were tasked with a job in that exchange, via a BT Group system called BASOL (Building Access System Online). We used to be based in a building next to the train station in Milton Keynes, Phoenix House. Back then it was all high security. The rollout of fibre and smaller street cabinets has now meant BT exchanges are more and more redundant nowadays and the copper network being decommisioned. I saw some massive exchanges working for BT, some in Central London with derelict cafes and even bars, social clubs etc. Most TE's are empty nowadays with just tiny racks in them terminating circuits. All being sold off now, even the network tunnels in London, Birmingham, Liverpool etc all underground.
Correct. You could see the linecards at the frame, this switch seems to still be in use. Yah, BT will really kick your ass if they realise you're in here 😂
Ahhh the days of getting zapped by an isdn or private circuit while soldering on a new circuit on the frame. They used to have massive cooling issues and the frames in some exchanges had massive massive runs between terminations and impossible to fault find on. Great big solid buildings though. Some of them would make good HMO's
I literally live less than 100 yards from my local exchange (where my dad worked for 15 years) and I remember years ago you could hear and feel the fans kicking out the heat but now it’s very quiet but still wholly in use - all 8 floors of it
They're turning off the analogue in a few years, it's hard to justify spending any money. Well until they know someone has been in. The replacement digital exchanges are mostly in street side boxes now. The new digital equipment will probably already be in a nearby separate smaller building, nearby to utilise the cable ducts, separate so they can demolish the old exchange. BT is desperate to sell off the building for redevelopment.
Normally the exchanges in use are classified as S4 or S5 sites which means they are secured with a coded entry system (badge card and code required). Also they are alarm secured which means that BT Security gets a notification (live alarm) about the entrance.
I worked in an ISP for 14 years and we've shared datacenters with other providers. there's one notable building that used to be a "military" facility, advertised as super secure The guard in main entrance let a delivery guy go through 3 security doors without even writing down his name...and his happens in multiple ocassions. In another building, very important actually, i just say hi to whoever is there and I just go in. NO id no anything. Idk if they know me (probably) but i do look the part so if you ever want to get into a comms building, go in a white van with ladderes and shit, wear a nice engineer outfit and just belong Its so bad that now that i recall, i can say that from 9 out of 10 i never get asked for ID.
Many a good time had in buildings just like that. It ALL seems so familiar and yet a little sad to see no one around.. Lifeless. It was the atmosphere created by the people working there and the smell/heat from the equipment working that made these places so special.. I think when i kick off this mortal coil, it will be places like this that i will be forever wandering.. Probably trying to track down that elusive intermittent fault.....:)
That sent a shiver down my spine haha, the memories of the past are becoming more and more distant. It is sad to see a building like this, once bustling with life, so eerily abandoned.
The compressor/receiver is for pressurising the exchange-side cables between the exchange and the street cabinets. It's one of the most effective ways of keeping water out.
Keeping the water out was not what it was for ! You were supposed to look at the flow meters on the ECP rack, if there was a significant flow then you should go to fix the leak by looking at the pressure gradient on the cable to locate the leak. In practice, yes everyone hoped the pressure would keep the water out but it didn't, not for ever. Let's hope with a fibre network the bane of water getting in cables is less of an issue.
@@andrewholland990 makes sence so thats what the gadges where for on the end of the MDF ? How far does the pressure go via the cable chamber Does it get pressure past the Cable gasket into the street or just around the exchange
@@KIRBZVIDS The air is injected into the cable usually in the cable chamber below the MDF but in large exchanges there maybe a joint to change the cable from Polyethylene to PVC due to the fire risk with Polyethylene. There will be an air block in the cable chamber, the air then goes out in the cable to the full length. In the cabinet at the far end there is an air block and there should be another pressure gauge with a contactor. If the pressure at the far end falls too much then an alarm is raised. Long before this the flow meters should have picked up small leaks. The ideal is the pressure gauge at the end of the cable should read the same as the exchange and there should be no flow. Depending of the configuration in the exchange there may or may no be a pressure gauge for the local cables but there will be a flow meter. The junction cables will normally have a pressure gauge and a flow meter. Cables from the exchange to the local area will normally be lettered. The junction cables to other exchanges will have 2 * 1141 codes and a cable number. e.g. ABC - DEF No2. In the past to determine which gauge contactor had produced the alarm there was a Wheatstone bridge on the ECP rack and the resistance to the contactor was measured and a table then told you which contactor has produced the alarm. All this was replaced so the cables could be monitored from a management centre. It is nice to see the ECP racks are still there despite all the changes to the rest of the telephone exchange ! Hope this helps.
@@andrewholland990 May not have been what it was for, but it did a pretty good job of it...until it didn't. Especially with the paper insulated cables.
That manual at 17:33 was for DACS, a system that enabled two customers to share a line without overhearing each other. It was common in locations with a shortage of lines. It fell out of use when broadband became the norm as that needed everyone to have their own exclusive line.
Not just broadband. DACS played havoc with analogue modems and I recall people having to shout at BT to get them removed from their lines to get reliable and faster connections.
These exchanges used to be kept immaculate in the electromagnetic days. Full of buzzing and wurring noises. Those ladders were on a sliding rail, pull down and hold on to the handle and you could scoot along on them. Sad state of privatisation and the security of the live system is shocking. You shouldn’t be in there.
Brings back memories. @ 9:55 the Tandberg terminal was used by the on site engineers to manage the Ericsson AXE10 exchange (in the blue cabinets). The Alarm panel lit up and had a bell or buzzer which might have been disconnected. The A1 alarms were ugent and were dealt with quickly; the A2 alarms less so. The APZ was for the computer control part of the exchange and the APT was for the telephony side of things. That card on the desk looks like a subscriber line card which was the interface between the copper line and the exchange, each card handled 8 lines. The mag tape was used for loading software and backing up the exchange software and data. later changed to using those Sony optical discs. Shame to see the building looking so shoddy and neglected.
Such a fascinating explore, this is something that not many people get to see. It's very strange and a little concerning that Openreach would leave an active exchange open like this. The telephone switching equipment in this exchange will be made redundant in 2027 when Openreach switches off the PSTN but copper ADSL equipment will remain active until 100% FTTP and FTTC coverage is achieved. This is a fibre enabled exchange so the building will remain to house the fibre equipment. You can see the Optical Distribution Frames and Optical Line Terminal racks at 21:46 and there is a large bundle of fibre cables leaving the exchange through the cable chamber (the yellow and orange ones). This is pretty much all that is needed for a modern access network and it takes up very little space compared to the older kit.
Used to work in exchange construction back in the 80's changing the old strowger systems to system-X. You remarked on the clicking noises. When it was strowger equipment the noise was constant and very loud. Especially on the Director floors (trunk switching). That area you went into at about 22 mins looked like it may have been a battery room for the strowger equipment. It would have two rows of very large lead acid cells (made from plates suspended in a bath of battery acid) connected in series to produce 50 Volts DC. They would have been float charged from a mains distibution system with a back up generator engine. Somewhere in that room large bus bars connected to the batteries would have lead out to the equipment floors. I can remember the maintenance guys fully decked out in rubber boots, aprons, massive gloves and face shields preparing the diluted acid (always acid into distilled water, never the other way) and topping up the cells and replacing the plates. The fumes could get eye watering, hence those fans.
What I find fascinating is recognising all the types of cable termination blocks on the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) around 21:00 - I used to work with those during my days as a switching technician... in New Zealand. Yes, we used a lot of the *same* connector types in NZPO / Telecom NZ exchanges, not to mention the old BPO 2000 step-by-step equipment that was still running in NZ until the early 90s.
That manual for a DACS. Shudder. For those who don't know/remember, it was a system to "manage" a lack of pairs from the exchange to DPs. It used a carrier system for the second line. Fine for voice. But if you were on the "DACS'd" pair, you were SOL trying to get any decent speed with a v.90 modem. And had a battle to get your pair "un-DACS'd", with BT blathering on about only guaranteeing to deliver a voice service. Fortunately, the system is incompatible with DSL so fairly rapidly died out in the 2000's
Basically a digital shared sevice clever tech and both subs could dial out not like the old party line, they still charge the exclusive line rental though
It wasn't digital iirc, it was just frequency shifted. Also, they still charged the single rental as you still had initial l individual service, and usually the last mile to the pole (though I've seen some DACS wall mounted, and even multi line units... Run a 10 pair into an office, service 20 lines etc.) Whether digital or not, the fact that it used frequency outside of our hearing range is why the other person couldn't hear it, and why broadband suffered as a result of it
Wicked Kirbz! Back in the day every room would have been jam packed with stuff, the equipment has got smaller and smaller and most has gone but yeah tis still a time capsule dude. It looks just like the old floors of the big BT tower block in Leicester. You're right, BT does have a 'style' for their old places. Those empty racks would have had hundreds of rotors going clack-clack-clack to connect phones lines together :)
At 2.20 thats an ig5 gas detector used in the under ground network mahholes and footway boxes, was a cable jointer for many years then done everything in the network, hated exchange work always got them jobs in the summer and outside in the winter, still had a great carear earnt good 💰 back in the day.
The telephone exchange in Hamble Hants was closed down in the 1980 and converted into 8 flats. I bought 1 of them. They were so popular I had 2 amazing neighbours. The son of the lead singer in the band Free. Remember "All Right Now" and Formula 1 Driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
That scope was definately after I was calibrating them, ones I started with were big valve models. Then we got hived off to Fujitsu and I moved back to BT INTERNATIONAL
A couple of things I find concerning is the potential for coming into contact with asbestos which is rife in old BT buildings and going onto flat roofs where there maybe microwave radiation
@@guy.h I meant the output from the transmitter to the antenna. The real output power. The parabolic antennas have gains up to 50 dB. For instance, a 50mW transmitter output at the antenna socket, will gain up to 5kW from the anntenna front, But this is just an antenna gain by focus all the amount of Power in one direction. The "5kW ERP" will not harm you in any way.
at 25:00 that's fiber coming in from the street (under). That used to be copper coming in, and feeding each floor. Judging by the age of the building, it was probably multiple floors of step by step equipment, or cross-bar and each floor was an exchange.
I guess it more than just a job more of a skill to do some of the things iv seen that thay do for customers and creating their own products then also being able to repair their own stuff on site making custom hardware is all crazy for 80s the digital conversion is amazing i think from analogue for its eariea
Definitely these were skilled workers who we replaced with computers. We will see the next round soon with ai. I find this era of technology really interesting also, maybe because it would have been cutting edge when I was a kid I don’t know. I’ve worked with some of the guys who worked in exchanges, he said like others they’re full of asbestos.
16:00 - AXE10 alarm panel - APZ = Computing side alarms , APT = switching side alarms . A1 = High priority , A2 Lower impact priority , O1 / O2 Observation level priority, athletic support top right is the alarm siren , white ATT light says that the panel is activated (using the IODAC: command) B3 was local alarm bell silence.
It’s normal for these Exchanges to be filled with old equipment and old manuals. When something is rendered obsolete or a network is phased out, it’s turned off and left in place. This place you visited is a potential fire hazard, shame on building management for letting it get out of hand.
Incredible, what a museum of a place. Many peoples entire working lives probably spent there, through all the different technologies, some of the old analogue line stuff jerry rigged to work for a few more years until it’s all done away with and replaced with fibre. Love that old data tape drive probably installed in the early 90s, abandoned by the 2000s and just left powered on ever since.
The 2 large reel-2-reel units look like 999 call recorders. There may have been operator services in there at some point which would have handled 999 traffic.
No, it is an old data recorder for storing programm and user data. Seems to me way back from the 70th. Multitrack recordeers looks different. Made by Ampex, Philips (plessey) and Telefunken. And they would not be placed in the phone exchange rather in the police department.
No they were used to load the programs into the Erricson AXE that is why they were the same blue cabinets as the ones outside the room and that terminal is to interrogate the blue cabinets.
My family lived in Birmingham from 1970 to 1985. I wonder if we were connected to that exchange when it was full of all the old mechanical switches and other equipment?
Also if ya can get in there tis no surprise that I stumbled across BT equipment in Orange Uganda's data centre, was all nicked and fenced via Russia lolz.
09:58 - board on the side of the tandberg terminal (used to interact with the AXE10 switch) looks like a line interface card (part no ROF-131-4382 probably a /2) Hate to think how many of those I swapped out and wrote fault reports for in the 80s (I commissioned AXE10 around the UK) that part number is forever engraved on my brain!
This is simultaneously one of the most interesting and one of the most terrifying urbex videos I have ever seen. Interesting because of just how much history is actually preserved here, with older surplus spaces just frozen in time, recording eras that no longer are - I wonder, especially with some of the frames from the old Strowger system, whether the people that handwrote all of the labelling are even still alive? Just seeing all of the BT logos throughout the years still here (and so many obsolete spinouts like Fulcrum), it's incredible how much went into this system that the public never saw. Terrifying because this is seemingly a live exchange, critical infrastructure, and the security is so lax and the maintenance so haphazard. Yes, most of this is slated for retirement pretty soon but right now, it's live, has live data running through it, and seemingly anyone could come in off the street and vandalise it, or do far worse things. I refuse to believe that the documentation for this building is up to date given how many obsolete systems are just kicking around, really wouldn't be difficult for a malicious actor to slip the odd box in here or there and start compromising things at a very low level. Honestly, I'm surprised this is posted online and hasn't been pulled because there's a lot of sensitive stuff at these sites and a lot of things to see if you know what it is you're looking at here. I do hope that when this site gets retired, at least some of this equipment gets preserved and handed over to collectors or museums rather than just broken up as eWaste and scrapped. The number of perfectly good bits of kit I've seen deliberately rendered inoperable for disposal is actually quite saddening.
@3:30: not sure why using the 24 hour clock system is a surprise, commonly used for train and airport departure boards/announcements, tv programme/recording guide, DAB radio, mobile phones, oven timers, kitchen appliances, car infotainment, weather forecasting, Aldi opening times, all rescue services and more.
Ahhh brings back memories for me,i was an engineer on southbank for twenty years,used to do work in southbank,southwark,vauxhall exchanges,they were all on my patch,we used to skive in them when our jobs were done. This is a working exchange,they used to be manned,but nowadays if any jumpering jobs need doing,they will be done by one man,at night,floating between exchanges. Im amazed you got in,but be careful as your entrance is logged. This is trespassing on a major level,surprised you didnt get pinched as if you did,you would be in serious trouble
That was the original exchange, probably built in the 30s. Then the rest of the building would be later extensions, probably in the 50s and 60s, as the network got bigger.
You needed parquet flooring for the sound insulation properties when the place was full of lady operators ~ putting you through caller ~and flex wires plugging into sockets. And cos they were 'facing' all day, so it's a nice touch too.
En France aussi nous avons encore des autocommutateurs AXE10 temporels Ericsson (fabriqués en France sous licence). Nous commençons à les stopper, mais les derniers mourront en 2030.
Only sorry that you didn't find Busby up on the roof. Every other PO Telephones, British Telecom and BT logo covered so far. Is the night Watchman called Sid, or was that the sell off of British Gas? Don't tell me...
@@scott7010 Well I hope they do as this is now being passed around on BT Facebook page and many are asking that question and these are BT managers. So I would expect this to be passed up the chain.
What??? The building was wide open with LIVE working broadband networking equipment?? In any case even if all the equipment was decommissioned why would the building be left unlocked for trespassers to enter?
Right, I really want to know where this is. Some of the old equipment I would HATE to see scrapped and I would pay a pretty penny to have in my collection of just old equipment. As someone born into a very digital world. I love to surround myself with analogue equipment and reverse-engineer them. As an Urben explorer myself, I am also quite interested in this building as it looks 1960s. Anyway, interesting video and I really hope some of this equipment is saved!
But if you are really interested in it just talk to BT / Openreach. When in the near future exchanges get decommissioned they pull out the equipment, I asked my line manager already if I could get some pieces. Maybe they sell it, I would like to keep some stuff before it goes lost forever and build a small exchange with the different eras of equipment. I’m even thinking of buying an old exchange building near my home place. Unfortunately that might not be cheap but it’s a small exchange so…
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I guess this isn't in use anymore since you were able to get in, but couldn't they just like pull the power plug lol? This place is probably using half the county's power
What a waste of energy powering all that obselite tape equipment, system x and other stuff I assume digital voice is completely operating without system x This is where our bills are going towards, maintaining these old inefficient exchanges
A bit like hollow terracotta 'bricks' used in buildings in hot countries ~ saving on water and materials in manufacture, these 80s concrete, now-called Waffle ceilings are quite clever. Their design also saves on materials, but because of their structural shape, they are strong. And lighter and cheaper. And do baffle sounds a bit.
I wonder if this will all be decommissioned in 2025 when they complete the PSTN switch off if all goes to plan? Unsure if this equipment even has anything to do with it. 25:10 - Love that faint sound in the left channel when you get close to the cabling.
It's really not a wise idea to take a half-hour-long video of yourself committing crimes and upload it to the internet. I'd be deleting this extremely quickly if I were you.
There is potentially highly sensitive information there that you've shown clearly in the video, which could be used by an enemy of the state in planning an act of terrorism, so potentially more serious than trespass, but that would be for a judge and jury to decide. I'm just trying to save a load of trouble. Keep it up if you like. Just because a door is open, does not mean you should walk through it and touch everything inside.
@@theBlackPrince_9lol that’s the most british thing i’ve ever heard and i don’t mean that in a good way. Calm the f*** down, there are no state secrets here.
It literally says next to every entrance on BT buildings 'no unauthorised access, trespassers will be prosecuted' and this melt films himself doing it 😂
At 2.20 thats an ig5 gas detector used in the under ground network mahholes and footway boxes, was a cable jointer for many years then done everything in the network, hated exchange work always got them jobs in the summer and outside in the winter, still had a great carear earnt good back in the day.
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That Ericsson equipment is an AXE10 digital telephone exchange, still in use. Soon to be decommissioned in 2025, along with System X (the other exchange type BT has, originally made by Plessey). Most of the other stuff in there is broadband equipment for both BT and other broadband providers.
Is the copper network being decommissioned completely, will be a big task to go fibre up to all the dps in the network, though in my area fibre is up poles in the OH network.
@@dav01kar Street cabs FTTC have fibre to the cabinet & then copper to the house. They have fibred all the poles & joint boxes round here, then they run overhead or underground fibre from the Connectorised Block Terminals (CBT's)
Why is there this weird mix of old and new alongside a semi derelict building that’s still being used for live connections? Is that normal?
@@ccctube5721 You try and get as much use out of the equipment as possible. You don't keep buying something new every year as technology evolves, it costs millions. The landline equipment was installed in the early 80's and is still going.
The large spaces in the exchange was for the old Strowger equipment. It took up whole floors. Technology gets smaller with time. This is the norm.
@@ccctube5721 You try and get as much use out of the equipment as possible. You don't keep buying something new every year as technology evolves, it costs millions. The landline equipment was installed in the early 80's and is still going.
The large spaces in the exchange was for the old Strowger equipment. It took up whole floors. Technology gets smaller with time. This is the norm.
Building is catalogue as government protected site, if you ever get caught on these places, I’m 100% sure you’ll be deeply in trouble and there’s evidence.
Nope its not classed as a government site thats SOCAP Protected Sites that only class for nuclear sites or mod
This exchange is northern soho rd Birmingham…worked in there many times over the years!! I’m now retired.
LLU is local loop un bundling. The hot room was the frame where phone line pairs used to be patched to the analogue switch gear. Card readers you saw were OBAS and Proximity (operational building access system and proximity control system) developed by initial shorrocks and supported by BT Security where I used to work. BT Open Reach or OLO providers (other licenced operators like BSkB, Virgin, TalkTalk etc) would have a proximity card to automatically access areas when they were tasked with a job in that exchange, via a BT Group system called BASOL (Building Access System Online). We used to be based in a building next to the train station in Milton Keynes, Phoenix House. Back then it was all high security. The rollout of fibre and smaller street cabinets has now meant BT exchanges are more and more redundant nowadays and the copper network being decommisioned. I saw some massive exchanges working for BT, some in Central London with derelict cafes and even bars, social clubs etc. Most TE's are empty nowadays with just tiny racks in them terminating circuits. All being sold off now, even the network tunnels in London, Birmingham, Liverpool etc all underground.
Correct. You could see the linecards at the frame, this switch seems to still be in use. Yah, BT will really kick your ass if they realise you're in here 😂
Back in the day there was a fully functioning pub in Colombo House (80s)
I used to go to the mech aids in bleak hall cst to have sll my equipment checked
Ahhh the days of getting zapped by an isdn or private circuit while soldering on a new circuit on the frame. They used to have massive cooling issues and the frames in some exchanges had massive massive runs between terminations and impossible to fault find on. Great big solid buildings though. Some of them would make good HMO's
I literally live less than 100 yards from my local exchange (where my dad worked for 15 years) and I remember years ago you could hear and feel the fans kicking out the heat but now it’s very quiet but still wholly in use - all 8 floors of it
I’m shocked how badly this piece of infrastructure is locked or protected.
They're turning off the analogue in a few years, it's hard to justify spending any money. Well until they know someone has been in. The replacement digital exchanges are mostly in street side boxes now. The new digital equipment will probably already be in a nearby separate smaller building, nearby to utilise the cable ducts, separate so they can demolish the old exchange. BT is desperate to sell off the building for redevelopment.
Staggering isn't it. Businesses still rely on this badly secured equipment. It's embarrassing
Normally the exchanges in use are classified as S4 or S5 sites which means they are secured with a coded entry system (badge card and code required). Also they are alarm secured which means that BT Security gets a notification (live alarm) about the entrance.
I worked in an ISP for 14 years and we've shared datacenters with other providers. there's one notable building that used to be a "military" facility, advertised as super secure
The guard in main entrance let a delivery guy go through 3 security doors without even writing down his name...and his happens in multiple ocassions.
In another building, very important actually, i just say hi to whoever is there and I just go in. NO id no anything. Idk if they know me (probably) but i do look the part
so if you ever want to get into a comms building, go in a white van with ladderes and shit, wear a nice engineer outfit and just belong
Its so bad that now that i recall, i can say that from 9 out of 10 i never get asked for ID.
Many a good time had in buildings just like that. It ALL seems so familiar and yet a little sad to see no one around.. Lifeless. It was the atmosphere created by the people working there and the smell/heat from the equipment working that made these places so special.. I think when i kick off this mortal coil, it will be places like this that i will be forever wandering.. Probably trying to track down that elusive intermittent fault.....:)
That sent a shiver down my spine haha, the memories of the past are becoming more and more distant. It is sad to see a building like this, once bustling with life, so eerily abandoned.
The compressor/receiver is for pressurising the exchange-side cables between the exchange and the street cabinets. It's one of the most effective ways of keeping water out.
I did wonder if that was what it was for but was 50/50 😂
Keeping the water out was not what it was for ! You were supposed to look at the flow meters on the ECP rack, if there was a significant flow then you should go to fix the leak by looking at the pressure gradient on the cable to locate the leak. In practice, yes everyone hoped the pressure would keep the water out but it didn't, not for ever. Let's hope with a fibre network the bane of water getting in cables is less of an issue.
@@andrewholland990 makes sence so thats what the gadges where for on the end of the MDF ? How far does the pressure go via the cable chamber Does it get pressure past the Cable gasket into the street or just around the exchange
@@KIRBZVIDS The air is injected into the cable usually in the cable chamber below the MDF but in large exchanges there maybe a joint to change the cable from Polyethylene to PVC due to the fire risk with Polyethylene. There will be an air block in the cable chamber, the air then goes out in the cable to the full length. In the cabinet at the far end there is an air block and there should be another pressure gauge with a contactor. If the pressure at the far end falls too much then an alarm is raised. Long before this the flow meters should have picked up small leaks. The ideal is the pressure gauge at the end of the cable should read the same as the exchange and there should be no flow.
Depending of the configuration in the exchange there may or may no be a pressure gauge for the local cables but there will be a flow meter. The junction cables will normally have a pressure gauge and a flow meter. Cables from the exchange to the local area will normally be lettered. The junction cables to other exchanges will have 2 * 1141 codes and a cable number. e.g. ABC - DEF No2.
In the past to determine which gauge contactor had produced the alarm there was a Wheatstone bridge on the ECP rack and the resistance to the contactor was measured and a table then told you which contactor has produced the alarm. All this was replaced so the cables could be monitored from a management centre.
It is nice to see the ECP racks are still there despite all the changes to the rest of the telephone exchange !
Hope this helps.
@@andrewholland990 May not have been what it was for, but it did a pretty good job of it...until it didn't. Especially with the paper insulated cables.
This place was wild, thanks a bunch for the tour. You guys are documenting history that the govt will likely never preserve.
That manual at 17:33 was for DACS, a system that enabled two customers to share a line without overhearing each other. It was common in locations with a shortage of lines. It fell out of use when broadband became the norm as that needed everyone to have their own exclusive line.
Not just broadband. DACS played havoc with analogue modems and I recall people having to shout at BT to get them removed from their lines to get reliable and faster connections.
@@chinnyvision I think the official line was it would give a slower but more stable dial-up connection.
@@stephenc6648 As usual any excuse NOT to do the proper work!
These exchanges used to be kept immaculate in the electromagnetic days. Full of buzzing and wurring noises. Those ladders were on a sliding rail, pull down and hold on to the handle and you could scoot along on them.
Sad state of privatisation and the security of the live system is shocking. You shouldn’t be in there.
Brings back memories. @ 9:55 the Tandberg terminal was used by the on site engineers to manage the Ericsson AXE10 exchange (in the blue cabinets). The Alarm panel lit up and had a bell or buzzer which might have been disconnected. The A1 alarms were ugent and were dealt with quickly; the A2 alarms less so. The APZ was for the computer control part of the exchange and the APT was for the telephony side of things. That card on the desk looks like a subscriber line card which was the interface between the copper line and the exchange, each card handled 8 lines. The mag tape was used for loading software and backing up the exchange software and data. later changed to using those Sony optical discs. Shame to see the building looking so shoddy and neglected.
Great security for UK infrastructure. Hope Boris Badenov or Ivan Bolokov isn't making notes😮
There is a particular smell in these exchanges that ill never forget.
Such a fascinating explore, this is something that not many people get to see. It's very strange and a little concerning that Openreach would leave an active exchange open like this.
The telephone switching equipment in this exchange will be made redundant in 2027 when Openreach switches off the PSTN but copper ADSL equipment will remain active until 100% FTTP and FTTC coverage is achieved. This is a fibre enabled exchange so the building will remain to house the fibre equipment. You can see the Optical Distribution Frames and Optical Line Terminal racks at 21:46 and there is a large bundle of fibre cables leaving the exchange through the cable chamber (the yellow and orange ones).
This is pretty much all that is needed for a modern access network and it takes up very little space compared to the older kit.
So many memories there...bit dis-concerting how one of the yoofs keeps saying how old everything is ..seems like yesterday
Wow. You've got some balls posting this online.
Literally broke into a building and posted it wtf
Used to work in exchange construction back in the 80's changing the old strowger systems to system-X. You remarked on the clicking noises. When it was strowger equipment the noise was constant and very loud. Especially on the Director floors (trunk switching). That area you went into at about 22 mins looked like it may have been a battery room for the strowger equipment. It would have two rows of very large lead acid cells (made from plates suspended in a bath of battery acid) connected in series to produce 50 Volts DC. They would have been float charged from a mains distibution system with a back up generator engine. Somewhere in that room large bus bars connected to the batteries would have lead out to the equipment floors. I can remember the maintenance guys fully decked out in rubber boots, aprons, massive gloves and face shields preparing the diluted acid (always acid into distilled water, never the other way) and topping up the cells and replacing the plates. The fumes could get eye watering, hence those fans.
What I find fascinating is recognising all the types of cable termination blocks on the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) around 21:00 - I used to work with those during my days as a switching technician... in New Zealand. Yes, we used a lot of the *same* connector types in NZPO / Telecom NZ exchanges, not to mention the old BPO 2000 step-by-step equipment that was still running in NZ until the early 90s.
That manual for a DACS. Shudder. For those who don't know/remember, it was a system to "manage" a lack of pairs from the exchange to DPs. It used a carrier system for the second line. Fine for voice. But if you were on the "DACS'd" pair, you were SOL trying to get any decent speed with a v.90 modem. And had a battle to get your pair "un-DACS'd", with BT blathering on about only guaranteeing to deliver a voice service.
Fortunately, the system is incompatible with DSL so fairly rapidly died out in the 2000's
Basically a digital shared sevice clever tech and both subs could dial out not like the old party line, they still charge the exclusive line rental though
It wasn't digital iirc, it was just frequency shifted. Also, they still charged the single rental as you still had initial l individual service, and usually the last mile to the pole (though I've seen some DACS wall mounted, and even multi line units... Run a 10 pair into an office, service 20 lines etc.)
Whether digital or not, the fact that it used frequency outside of our hearing range is why the other person couldn't hear it, and why broadband suffered as a result of it
I remember the battles people had with BT over them being posted on some of the Usenet groups.
Great video! I've worked for telecommunications for a few years and have always wondered/been interested in what an Exchange looks like. Bravo.
Wicked Kirbz! Back in the day every room would have been jam packed with stuff, the equipment has got smaller and smaller and most has gone but yeah tis still a time capsule dude. It looks just like the old floors of the big BT tower block in Leicester. You're right, BT does have a 'style' for their old places. Those empty racks would have had hundreds of rotors going clack-clack-clack to connect phones lines together :)
For the most part now it just consists of maybe one or two comms cabinets in the corner of a room in the exchange building itself
Really brilliant vid & love the commentary too - so interesting, thanks!
At 2.20 thats an ig5 gas detector used in the under ground network mahholes and footway boxes, was a cable jointer for many years then done everything in the network, hated exchange work always got them jobs in the summer and outside in the winter, still had a great carear earnt good 💰 back in the day.
The telephone exchange in Hamble Hants was closed down in the 1980 and converted into 8 flats. I bought 1 of them. They were so popular I had 2 amazing neighbours. The son of the lead singer in the band Free. Remember "All Right Now" and Formula 1 Driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
You mean Paul Rodgers
Sony MO boxes are magneto-optical disks
It looked like the drive for it was on the shelf at the bottom
Reminds me of Cardinal in Leicester... what a time capsule. The memories seeing that huge MDF like Wharf Street Tandem.
That scope was definately after I was calibrating them, ones I started with were big valve models. Then we got hived off to Fujitsu and I moved back to BT INTERNATIONAL
Thats mad mate
Must have been LTS in the 70s. I was in BTS, Fordrough Lane!
I imagine years ago these exchanges must have had teams of workers based out of them
They certainly did. My dad was one of those team members
A couple of things I find concerning is the potential for coming into contact with asbestos which is rife in old BT buildings and going onto flat roofs where there maybe microwave radiation
I agree why we went no where near them on the roof thay was all on a separate meznaene area
--with few milliwatts output to the antennas. The leakage radiation of a microwave oven in the front of the door might be much more.
and the dust inhaled from standing on a sheet of asbestos is about as dangerous@@Reaktanzkreis
@@Reaktanzkreis you may want to double check your info sources. The ERP from these beam-forming arrays is certainly not in the mW range
@@guy.h I meant the output from the transmitter to the antenna. The real output power. The parabolic antennas have gains up to 50 dB. For instance, a 50mW transmitter output at the antenna socket, will gain up to 5kW from the anntenna front, But this is just an antenna gain by focus all the amount of Power in one direction.
The "5kW ERP" will not harm you in any way.
An education. Those cables in the basement, blimey! Thank you.
at 25:00 that's fiber coming in from the street (under). That used to be copper coming in, and feeding each floor. Judging by the age of the building, it was probably multiple floors of step by step equipment, or cross-bar and each floor was an exchange.
I Imagine this was a good place to work for good people. It’s a shame that so many jobs have been replaced .
I guess it more than just a job more of a skill to do some of the things iv seen that thay do for customers and creating their own products then also being able to repair their own stuff on site making custom hardware is all crazy for 80s the digital conversion is amazing i think from analogue for its eariea
Definitely these were skilled workers who we replaced with computers. We will see the next round soon with ai.
I find this era of technology really interesting also, maybe because it would have been cutting edge when I was a kid I don’t know.
I’ve worked with some of the guys who worked in exchanges, he said like others they’re full of asbestos.
This is an 80s time capsule!
It’s so strange to see this mix of old and new working side by side in a derelict and abandoned building. Is this how BT runs most of its exchanges?
It isn’t derelict that’s why. That’s a live exchange, they broke into it.
@@matomo23 🤣🤣
16:00 - AXE10 alarm panel - APZ = Computing side alarms , APT = switching side alarms . A1 = High priority , A2 Lower impact priority , O1 / O2 Observation level priority, athletic support top right is the alarm siren , white ATT light says that the panel is activated (using the IODAC: command) B3 was local alarm bell silence.
Makes me sad. All that equipment and all those people replaced by optical fibre. What a waste.
It’s normal for these Exchanges to be filled with old equipment and old manuals. When something is rendered obsolete or a network is phased out, it’s turned off and left in place. This place you visited is a potential fire hazard, shame on building management for letting it get out of hand.
Incredible, what a museum of a place. Many peoples entire working lives probably spent there, through all the different technologies, some of the old analogue line stuff jerry rigged to work for a few more years until it’s all done away with and replaced with fibre.
Love that old data tape drive probably installed in the early 90s, abandoned by the 2000s and just left powered on ever since.
Wish I took video of when I work for Openreach back in the early 2000's. Used to work West London and dossed in the exchanges all day lol
I agree there buddy you had a wicked job 👍
The 2 large reel-2-reel units look like 999 call recorders. There may have been operator services in there at some point which would have handled 999 traffic.
Thats interesting buddy
No, it is an old data recorder for storing programm and user data. Seems to me way back from the 70th. Multitrack recordeers looks different. Made by Ampex, Philips (plessey) and Telefunken.
And they would not be placed in the phone exchange rather in the police department.
I worked in a BT 999 operator centre and we had the 999 recorders in the switch room. The shift supervisors had the job of changing the tapes.
No they were used to load the programs into the Erricson AXE that is why they were the same blue cabinets as the ones outside the room and that terminal is to interrogate the blue cabinets.
My family lived in Birmingham from 1970 to 1985. I wonder if we were connected to that exchange when it was full of all the old mechanical switches and other equipment?
The older system where removed probably say 80 90 equipment and morden fiber is recent
Also if ya can get in there tis no surprise that I stumbled across BT equipment in Orange Uganda's data centre, was all nicked and fenced via Russia lolz.
@13:59 the relay clicking sound is recognisable as the landline ringing cadence, burr-burr.
09:58 - board on the side of the tandberg terminal (used to interact with the AXE10 switch) looks like a line interface card (part no ROF-131-4382 probably a /2) Hate to think how many of those I swapped out and wrote fault reports for in the 80s (I commissioned AXE10 around the UK) that part number is forever engraved on my brain!
Most of that of stuff, would bring a pretty penny online the brown data entry terminal my pal had one sold it for over £2k
We that seems to be a live BT exchange. That noise on entry is the alarm system going off. Why have you broken into this building?
System alarm system alarm 🤣
This is simultaneously one of the most interesting and one of the most terrifying urbex videos I have ever seen.
Interesting because of just how much history is actually preserved here, with older surplus spaces just frozen in time, recording eras that no longer are - I wonder, especially with some of the frames from the old Strowger system, whether the people that handwrote all of the labelling are even still alive? Just seeing all of the BT logos throughout the years still here (and so many obsolete spinouts like Fulcrum), it's incredible how much went into this system that the public never saw.
Terrifying because this is seemingly a live exchange, critical infrastructure, and the security is so lax and the maintenance so haphazard. Yes, most of this is slated for retirement pretty soon but right now, it's live, has live data running through it, and seemingly anyone could come in off the street and vandalise it, or do far worse things. I refuse to believe that the documentation for this building is up to date given how many obsolete systems are just kicking around, really wouldn't be difficult for a malicious actor to slip the odd box in here or there and start compromising things at a very low level.
Honestly, I'm surprised this is posted online and hasn't been pulled because there's a lot of sensitive stuff at these sites and a lot of things to see if you know what it is you're looking at here.
I do hope that when this site gets retired, at least some of this equipment gets preserved and handed over to collectors or museums rather than just broken up as eWaste and scrapped. The number of perfectly good bits of kit I've seen deliberately rendered inoperable for disposal is actually quite saddening.
@3:30: not sure why using the 24 hour clock system is a surprise, commonly used for train and airport departure boards/announcements, tv programme/recording guide, DAB radio, mobile phones, oven timers, kitchen appliances, car infotainment, weather forecasting, Aldi opening times, all rescue services and more.
Good job you guys are not vandals 😂
Soon to be part of a hotel complex I think
Ahhh brings back memories for me,i was an engineer on southbank for twenty years,used to do work in southbank,southwark,vauxhall exchanges,they were all on my patch,we used to skive in them when our jobs were done.
This is a working exchange,they used to be manned,but nowadays if any jumpering jobs need doing,they will be done by one man,at night,floating between exchanges.
Im amazed you got in,but be careful as your entrance is logged.
This is trespassing on a major level,surprised you didnt get pinched as if you did,you would be in serious trouble
The real question is what was the buildings use before the telephone exchange? There is parquetry on the floor
Its always been a telephone exchange buddy
That was the original exchange, probably built in the 30s. Then the rest of the building would be later extensions, probably in the 50s and 60s, as the network got bigger.
You needed parquet flooring for the sound insulation properties when the place was full of lady operators ~ putting you through caller ~and flex wires plugging into sockets.
And cos they were 'facing' all day, so it's a nice touch too.
Parquet Floors were standard in most older exchanges...
They always used that kind of floor in telephone exchanges.
En France aussi nous avons encore des autocommutateurs AXE10 temporels Ericsson (fabriqués en France sous licence). Nous commençons à les stopper, mais les derniers mourront en 2030.
Only sorry that you didn't find Busby up on the roof. Every other PO Telephones, British Telecom and BT logo covered so far.
Is the night Watchman called Sid, or was that the sell off of British Gas?
Don't tell me...
Who let you in? I am pretty sure BT will take this further if you just went in and trespassed. I'd expect a call from the Police tbh.
Bt security already know about it
@@scott7010 Well I hope they do as this is now being passed around on BT Facebook page and many are asking that question and these are BT managers. So I would expect this to be passed up the chain.
What??? The building was wide open with LIVE working broadband networking equipment?? In any case even if all the equipment was decommissioned why would the building be left unlocked for trespassers to enter?
@@movadamusicWe don’t know what happened but these guys broke in. Doesn’t matter how it happened it’s illegal.
@@movadamusicit was not open, in the beginning you can hear the alarm going off… they broke into the building.
Looks like Edge of Darkness 1983
😂
It's an IG5 gas tester
Yeah good luck trying to use a magneto optical disk in a tape based reel to reel tape drive...
The tapes were hanging up on the rack in my video
I used to work in St. Botolphs Telex Exchange. I use the word “worked” lightly bc we spent most of our time in city pubs….
Is that why most bt sites have pool tables haha
We had 2 pool tables.. a snooker table and a bar…. Amazing when you compare that to today’s culture…
That tv back there was probably a decca Bradford 😂
No it's in the tatung period just before Decca disappeared for ever.
Right, I really want to know where this is. Some of the old equipment I would HATE to see scrapped and I would pay a pretty penny to have in my collection of just old equipment. As someone born into a very digital world. I love to surround myself with analogue equipment and reverse-engineer them. As an Urben explorer myself, I am also quite interested in this building as it looks 1960s. Anyway, interesting video and I really hope some of this equipment is saved!
It’s a live telephone exchange. They broke in.
But if you are really interested in it just talk to BT / Openreach. When in the near future exchanges get decommissioned they pull out the equipment, I asked my line manager already if I could get some pieces. Maybe they sell it, I would like to keep some stuff before it goes lost forever and build a small exchange with the different eras of equipment.
I’m even thinking of buying an old exchange building near my home place. Unfortunately that might not be cheap but it’s a small exchange so…
Please more of the same
I'm getting Fallout vibes.
love your videos beaut , listening to you giggle giggle is great tooooo xx love you , nathan xx
So, BT finally got rid of all the workforce - they said they would. A place where a ghost would feel at home.
Does anyone does why eye protection must be worn in a "Frame Zone"?
In case Boris Johnson lost WhatsApp messages jump out 🤣
So you don't poke yourself in the eye with the wires getting terminated
For the loose wire that flies off after an IDC connection as well as when soldering.
@@deanknight4789 i always fort ypu was never ment to solder the wires on the mdf
@@KIRBZVIDS nope - on the “bar pairs” (the black blocks in the video), the jumper wires must be soldered.
4500 of these buildings to be freed up in 2026. Should be interesting to see what they turn into.
you found the pimp alarm lol
Almost looks like a scam thing with the auto call dialler thing 2 minutes 30 in this looks interesting
"Greetings, friend. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So, use it, and send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don't delay, eternal happiness is just a dollar away."
Looks like the Mariceleste.
Dont touch any of the exchange
Its so flimsy that one wrong move can take it down
Ive herd from techs that work on them there storys
I guess this isn't in use anymore since you were able to get in, but couldn't they just like pull the power plug lol? This place is probably using half the county's power
It's still very much in use, certainly not abandoned..
BT group use just over 1% of all the UK energy.
What a waste of energy powering all that obselite tape equipment, system x and other stuff
I assume digital voice is completely operating without system x
This is where our bills are going towards, maintaining these old inefficient exchanges
That is not obsolete, they broke into a live exchange
Maybe BT could sell some of this stuff and lower my bill? No? Fair enough
Thats awesome the ceiling at the end looks like it was designed to possibly reflect sound Would be a great bitcoin mining operation 😂😂
A bit like hollow terracotta 'bricks' used in buildings in hot countries ~ saving on water and materials in manufacture, these 80s concrete, now-called Waffle ceilings are quite clever.
Their design also saves on materials, but because of their structural shape, they are strong. And lighter and cheaper. And do baffle sounds a bit.
Where is this located at in the UK?
Birmingham
@@KIRBZVIDS nice
Turn it off, teach BT a valuable lesson...
❤❤
BT are an absolute joke. Let anyone have access to their exchanges. Any malevolent activity must be so easy. Very interesting to see all the same.
I agree as an ex employee
Ignorance is bliss.
I wonder if this will all be decommissioned in 2025 when they complete the PSTN switch off if all goes to plan? Unsure if this equipment even has anything to do with it.
25:10 - Love that faint sound in the left channel when you get close to the cabling.
Some of the equipment was the x system most the morneden equipment in cabinet is mordon
@@KIRBZVIDSInteresting, thanks for explaining. Do you have any platforms where you upload your photographs?
That site is still live. Lol.
Not the whole site its part mothballed
@@KIRBZVIDS??? There’s LIVE broadband servers operating, the site is still in use, LOL
@@movadamusic what download speed what you like
DMIG
DMIG Porn haha !
It's really not a wise idea to take a half-hour-long video of yourself committing crimes and upload it to the internet. I'd be deleting this extremely quickly if I were you.
Crimes 🤣 what crime ? Civil Tresspass 😂 mabey the open reach engineer who left the door open needs sacking 😂
There is potentially highly sensitive information there that you've shown clearly in the video, which could be used by an enemy of the state in planning an act of terrorism, so potentially more serious than trespass, but that would be for a judge and jury to decide. I'm just trying to save a load of trouble. Keep it up if you like.
Just because a door is open, does not mean you should walk through it and touch everything inside.
@@theBlackPrince_9lol that’s the most british thing i’ve ever heard and i don’t mean that in a good way. Calm the f*** down, there are no state secrets here.
It literally says next to every entrance on BT buildings 'no unauthorised access, trespassers will be prosecuted' and this melt films himself doing it 😂
Over reaction online Karen
Fujikura FSM-30S Arc Fusion Splicer are 1 grand today money, 6k back in day
At 2.20 thats an ig5 gas detector used in the under ground network mahholes and footway boxes, was a cable jointer for many years then done everything in the network, hated exchange work always got them jobs in the summer and outside in the winter, still had a great carear earnt good back in the day.
What I don't get why would there be a gas issue with Telphone lines ?
@@KIRBZVIDS its heavier than air, so sinks into the underground tunnels and vaults
@@gilesgander155 i understand radon gas is that basically all is measures? Or dose it detected co level aswell