onto the editorial pages of newspapers. Some Rochester Telephone customers in outlying areas were still forced to rely on magneto crank telephones, and in certain suburbs customers were grouped into four- and eight-party lines. The company's preoccupation with the all-important and enormously expensive dial conversion effort had resulted in serious lapses in service in other areas. After the Public Utilities Commission publicly scolded Rochester Telephone for its inept management—calling its incompetent conduct of business 'inexcusable'--the company underwent a major reorganization, and a significant portion of its management was replaced. The retooled Rochester Telephone entered the 1960s poised to rectify the faults of the past and seek new growth. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time, and it set out to use the capital generated by stock sales to improve service in the rapidly growing suburbs. In 1961, however, this progress was slowed by a nine-week strike of telephone workers that again resulted in a backlog of service calls. Throughout the rest of the 1960s, the company expanded its infrastructure of cables and switching equipment while adding new lines to keep pace with Rochester's growth. In 1966 Rochester Telephone completed conversion of its entire system to dial switching and established a seven-digit phone number system. By the end of the decade, the company had added 200,000 new phones to its network. To prepare for further growth, Rochester Telephone initiated employee training programs in the late 1960s. The first sign of that growth came in 1972, when the company made its first acquisition outside the geographical limits of its service area, purchasing the Sylvan Lake Telephone Company. This move was made in response to the slowing rate of economic growth in the company's traditional area of operation. Four years later, a second, much larger purchase was made, when Rochester Telephone acquired the Highland Telephone Company. In the mid-1970s, Rochester Telephone experienced its first taste of the competition. Around this time, the telephone industry was rocked by a Supreme Court ruling that allowed customers to attach their own phone equipment to company lines. No longer were telephone users required to purchase equipment only from the telephone company itself. Inroads caused by this development, along with other factors, caused a drop in company revenues and earnings during this time. In 1974 the company suffered a strike by telephone workers that lasted 28 weeks, and in the following