Ericsson AXE - Old Video
Here's an old corporate video from Ericsson about their AXE digital switching system.
Ericsson AXE is the most widely used telecommunication switching platform in Europe and it has been at the core of most European telephone networks for decades.
It's also the most widely used system of its type in the world. It tends to be the switch of choice for digital cellular networks 2G, 3G and 4G.
AXE was introduced in 1976 and replaced a whole range of Ericsson crossbar switches, like ARF and ARK which were also hugely popular in most European countries and elsewhere in the world e.g. ARF/ARK and later AXE forms the basis of the Australian phone network too.
The other major suppliers in Europe are :
Alcatel which has two families of digital switch, E10 and System 7 and now, since it owns Lucent, also has the 7ESS in North America.
Nokia-Siemens networks (Joint venture)
Siemens EWSD
Nokia DX 200
Both of which are very widely used popular switches.
The old early 80s Ericsson video's hilarious though!
Just really kitsch and even has a sung theme tune
