Have you ever wondered what those small buildings along the side of the highway that you see in rural areas are for? They are phone company booster stations which contain relays, amplifiers and where long cables that may run for ten miles or more come together. You may have noticed such telecommunication relay stations across the western United States, where they are more noticeable along the roadway, but you will find them in every part of the United States. When cross country fiber optic telecommunication cables or traditional copper multi strand phone cables are laid and the roll plays out, a relay or booster station may be built right there.

These phone company relay stations may contain banks of amplifiers that boost the light wave or electronic signal on a few more miles to the next station. Often they will be equipped with back up generators to provide power to keep the phone and data network up and running if the local power lines go down. Most have air conditioner units to keep telecommunication signal booster and switching equipment cool and running efficiently.

These phone company booster station houses may also serve as switching hubs for lines that divert off of the main trunk line to communities.ee

Mostly these stations are unmanned but most are inspected frequently by phone company technicians.

The photo below of a phone company switching or booster station office along the roadside was taken east of El Paso Texas where many trans continental phone lines have been laid.

Much of the phone and data traffic in the United States is still handled by terrestrial data cables. Their lack of latency, or the “echo effect” allows for cleaner voice conversations.

I enjoy writing InfoNuggets about odd things that I see when I travel or things that many people may not know about. You can see a couple of my other articles about odd things along the roadway here:

Old Steam Train Water Stations

Strange Wing Like Things On Phone Lines