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The primary reason for telephone exchanges of the past being built on ground floors and basements was the weight of the equipment and the difficulty of moving it. In modern times, the weight of the batteries still plays a role, but exchanges are being remoted away from the batteries with increasing regularity.

Mae-East is pretty good example of this still.. those DC batteries didn't appear to me to be featherweights, up ontop of concrete blocks. I don't recall seeing DC batteries in mae-west up in the building.. where did they put them?

They are indeed upstairs, one floor below the node.

The cost of building a datacenter in a multistory building is much much greater than a one story building, as we have learned. The only benefit we have seen from the multistories, is the usual coincidence that they are more likely to be "lit" with glass, than a vacant one story.. unless you are acquiring an old bell building or something.. owen ;)

Actually, it depends on the multi-story building. Of course, we did acquire an old Telco suite. :-)

rob

Owen