If there is an on prem switch, it isn't Centrex. Take a picture of it and get the model number, if you can find it.
Agreed. Centrex was a brand name for the Bell system OFF premesis "PBX like" services with extensions and what not, provided by "dumb" phones -- all programmed in the 5ESS at the CO as features on the line(s).
The vast majority of even the dumbest on-premises systems can usually be easily programmed to cut 911 directly to an outside trunk.
Our system not only does that, but emails a select group of people that it happened so we can be aware that PD is probably headed our way, because no matter how many times you tell people in a call center to simply remain on the line and explain to the dispatcher that they accidentally dialed the number (complete with a giant "Emergency Call" replacing much of the screen real estate of their phone when they do it), they panic and hang up anyway. And DPD dispatches on 911-hang up if they can't reach a call back number or the cell phone of one of our call center supervisory people.
But holy hell. Frontier. How did you run into them doing local service in Texas?!
Need to figure out what you really have there. If it's insanely ancient it might be dumb phones, Centrex service, and the box might just be a T1 channel bank. If that's true and it really is Centrex, all programming happens at the Central Office. Nothing you can do to change it on-premesis.
And if it really is Frontier and you're hooked straight into them in a State where they're not a true local carrier, they may have done something stupid like bang out some weird Centrex like service in a long distance switch. Which is the sort of thing that wouldn't surprise me at all.
(I worked for a place acquired by Frontier Communication , if you're talking about the Rochester based one -- for a while -- who was then acquired by an even bigger fish. I thought they were long dead everywhere other than up around upstate NY where they were still a CLEC or were they the original RBOC? Either way, wow.
Back when they merged with Allnet, I had to go fart around in their NOC in Detroit with a newish Director level guy who thought NOCs were the new hotness and wanted to build one. We didn't have the heart to tell him Bell companies bad bigger and better ones everywhere at least a couple of decades before that. He built the NOC out, back home, and I ended up managing it and the help desk for a while when they posted the job. First management job actually and I learned quickly that I didn't enjoy it as much as working on stuff. I left to go to a bigger equipment manufacturer to support channel banks, DS3/1 multiplexers, and GR303 stuff.
Anyway. Side trip down memory lane.)
