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installed one of the first digital switches in the United States. Analog and digital switches do the same thing, but digital technology can handle more calls, more efficiently than analog. If analog technology were compared to a pickup truck, digital technology would be a freight train. Also in the 1980s, fiber optics changed the telecommunications landscape. Hamilton Telecommunications was — once again — at the forefront of change. Conventional construction called for fiber optic cable to be buried in labor-intensive open trenches. Hamilton’s engineers challenged tradition by using cable plows to bury the fiber optic cable with telephone and television cables — all in one pass — which saved time, money and resources. Hamilton’s peers scoffed and said fiber optic cable was too fragile to withstand that kind of stress.
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“They all said we were going to live to regret that,” said John Nelson, son of CEO Phil Nelson and Hamilton Telecommunications president, who was 16 at the time. John remembers riding on the back of plows during the first installation. Thirty years later, the executive says, the proof is in the pudding: Those same fiber optic lines would still be working today, had they not been replaced by newer, faster multi-node fiber. In fact, several other telecommunications companies have contacted Hamilton, asking the company for advice on installing their own fiber optic cable. Just before cell phone technology exploded in the early 1990s, rural telephone companies found that 100-foot towers were not tall enough to connect its cell phone users, most of whom were rural customers.
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Hamilton banded with a group of telecommunications companies in Nebraska to solicit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow 500-foot towers, which are still in use today throughout the United States. Phil Nelson says that during the process, they met some resistance from their peers who thought cell phone
The many facets of Hamilton Telecommunications Learn more about Hamilton Telecommunications and its affiliations and company divisions. • HamiltonTel.com • HamiltonRelay.com • HamiltonCapTel.com • Hamilton.net • HamiltonISBusiness.com • HamiltonManagedHosting.com • HamiltonTelephone.com • HamiltonLongDistance.com • MidStateTV.com
HAMILTO N CELEBRATES | S E PT E M B E R 2011
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