1. - ericssonhistory.com

NEWS/romAll Quarters of the WorldL M Ericsson Presents AutomaticExchange to Cali, ColombiaIn September last year a seriousexplosion occurred in the town ofCali, Colombia. Seven lorries loadedwith dynamite exploded while parkedon a barracks square. Eight blocksof buildings were levelled with theground, windows were smashed withintwo miles radius, and the explosionleft a crater 100 yards in diameter.The death roll was very heavy,and large numbers of people wereinjured. The destruction in the townwas appalling. All normal life stopped,military and civilian squads weresent in to assist the injured and clearup after the devastation.L M Ericsson, represented in Colombiaby their affiliates Cia EricssonLtda. contacted the Colombianrelief organization Sendas and, byway of financial assistance, offeredautomatic telephone equipment for5,800 lines of other make that happenedto be available. The gift contributedto some extent to the reliefcampaign for Cali which was set inmotion throughout the country.The head of Cia Ericsson Ltda,Mr. Olaf Gustafson, presented thedeed of gift to the President of Colombia,General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla,at the end of last year. In February1957 LM Ericsson was ableto hand over the gift in concrete formto the Mayor of Cali, Col. AndresMunoz, who officially accepted theequipment on Cali's behalf fromMessrs. Gote Fernstedt and OlafGustafson.Mr. Gote Fernstedt signs the deed oftransfer for the gift to the town ofCali. On his right is the Mayor of Cali.(Below) Mr. Olaf Gustafson presentsthe deed of gift to the President ofColombia.The press devoted much space tothis evidence of L M Ericsson's desireto help. The presentation ceremonywas also televised.The town of Cali has a telephonesystem which differs entirely fromL M Ericsson's, so that the gift wasin no way bound up with a businessdeal-a fact which aroused considerablerespect and appreciation fromthe press and local population.First CrossbarSwitching Exchangein AfricaThe first crossbar exchange inAfrica was installed at Gatooma,Southern Rhodesia, in January to theorders of the Rhodesia Post Office.It is a 1,000-line city exchange ofL M Ericsson's type ARF 50 withequipment for auto-manual trunktraffic. The equipment was installedby the Post Office staff with the assistanceof an L M Ericsson engineerwho remained for six weeks after thecut-over to give instruction to thePost Office maintenance staff. Beforehis departure 10,000 test connectionshad been made without a single faultoccurring, and the exchange has sincefunctioned satisfactorily.31