introduction - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1986 - 5 Shilling

In the over one hundred years of its existence, the Austrian telephone network has been continuously expanded and in 1986 had grown to about 2.7 million lines. In the years 1977/1978, the Austrian Post and Telegraph Administration set the goal of introducing a new switching system in Austria in the mid-eighties. To implement this plan, on 9 October 1978 ÖFEG, the Austrian telecommunications development and promotion company m.b.H., was founded in Vienna. This company was awarded the contract for the production and use of the Austrian digital telephone system OES (Austrian Electronic System). On July 23, 1981, the General Postal Administration decided on two basic systems, the DMS 100 system from Northern Telecom (Canada) and the EWSD system from Siemens A.G. Munich, to be considered for an adaptation development in Austria. Two of ÖFEG's four partner companies founded development centers in which the basic system DMS 100 was developed into the OESD system and the basic system EWSD was developed into OESE. In 1985, the construction of the first OESD facilities in Vienna began. In February 1986, the connection with subscriber lines, whereby the first participants were able to make digital phone calls via OES.