[qwerty_asdf]

I'm assuming that the "switches" they're currently experimenting on also probably aren't designed to function as telecommunications switching equipment might. I'd imagine they have all the frills and features of a circuit breaker or a knife switch.

So, in that sense they really are "classic" switches in terms of representing the raw fundamentals of functionality for the purposes of experimentation, but not in the sense of "classical physics" where the off state is caused by introducing a physical air gap to the circuit.