46th Street and Baltimore Avenue. Large businesses in Evergreen Central Office boundaries include Penn, the Medical Center, the Steinberg Conference Center, the Penn Tower Hotel, Drexel University, the VA Hospital, CHOP, Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Children's Seashore House, the Sheraton Hotel and the Civic Center. These services are currently provided under a 5 year custom tariff approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. The contract expires on December 15, 1997. Telecommunications purchases all voice communications services from a variety of providers and resells them to University faculty, staff, students and affiliates by charging back all costs.
Telecommunications is operated as a break-even operation.
A PBX is a Private Branch Exchange or switching system that is owned or leased and operated by the business and housed on its premises. PBXs are connected to the public switched local and toll networks by dedicated trunks. Local exchange companies have long offered an alternative to PBXs by providing central office-based systems, known as Centrex. These are traditionally popular in densely populated urban centers such as Philadelphia. Under the Centrex model, the central office's switch is partitioned in software to provide a business with customized, PBX-like, business communication features and capabilities.