Southwest - WASHDCSW Updated: 09:11PM EST 12/27/2005 Operating Company: Verizon Washington, DC Inc. Former Operating Company(s): Bell Atlantic - Washington, DC Inc. C&P Telephone Co. of DC Operating Company Number: 9213 Office Name: Southwest Location: 30 E St. SW Washington, DC Colocated Carrier(s): AT&T Corp. AT&T Local (7421) MCI Qwest Communications Lightwave Spectrum, Inc. (QGS - Qwest Gov't Srvcs) Metrocall USA (6521) Paetec Communications, Inc. - DC (4989) Teleport Communications Group (TCG)

Comments:
This is it! 30 E. St. SW the Washington, DC InterLATA tandem (and until recently it was the IntraLATA tandem as well). Site serves the DNC, CAIR and other lesser lobbying groups in the shadow of capitol hill. Office is an access POP for AT&T as well as being an AT&T long distance switch site. In AT&T parlance this office is known as Washington 3 & 6. A little bit of digging on the internet reveals there is alot going on at the Southwest CO (all activies synomomous with a tandem office). However some equipment entries are suspect. The 00T tandem is kind of old and hard to imagine it is still active. It is not assigned any exchanges and maybe a forgotten record. Also, I've never seen a DMS-10 acting as a tandem so that seems suspect.

As mentioned above this office was once the LATA tandem for the Washington, DC LATA but in late 2003 Bell moved IntraLATA tandem traffic for the 301 area code to the Bethesda tandem office in Montgomery County, Maryland and IntraLATA traffic for the 703 areacode and 571 overlay to the Arlington tandem office in Arlington County, Virginia to provide capacity relief for this switch. This office still handles InterLATA tandem traffic for the region.

While alot of "stuff" goes on here it is interesting to note there is actually more activity at the Rocky Mount, NC tandem office than here!

Around back one can find evidence of several long distance fiber optic cable routes entering the building via CSX/AMTRAK ROW. On the opposite side of the building more MCI and QGS fiber can be seen along the road [Ed. Hrmm so MCI enters from two sides, not bad!]. QGS, Qwest Government Services, was formerly known as Lightwave Spectrum. Lightwave has often been thought of as a front for the CIA so hopefully the change in ownership will dispell all of the standing tinfoil hat rumors.

The Bell Atlantic 2TD and 2WD devices were used to announce time and weather respectively via special phone numbers. It is unknown what happened to these services. They are listed for historical purposes. Unknown also, is the fate of the TCG switch or even the exchanges is served. The TCG exchanges were probably folded into AT&T Local's switch.