A telephone exchange is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in large enterprises.
An exchange consists of electronic components and in older systems also human operators that interconnect (switch) telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital systems to establish telephone calls between subscribers.
In the public telecommunication networks a telephone exchange is located in a central office (CO), typically a building used to house theinside plant equipment of potentially several telephone exchanges, each serving a certain geographical exchange area.
Central office locations are often identified in North America as wire centers, designating a facility from which a telephone obtains dial tone.
For business and billing purposes, telephony carriers also define rate centers, which in larger cities may be clusters of central offices, to define specified geographical locations for determining distance measurements.