landline telephone question

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coffeedart67

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I was watching a show (set in modern times)they had internet, cell phones, etc. but they had a dial telephone in the house. It has been bugging me, how would a phone have not been updated in all this time? I seem to remember getting a touchtone phone in the late 70's early 80's. Would a dial phone even work on today's phone system?
thanks
Aaron
 
I still keep a dial phone as a back up. It still works here, and It works when the power is off, but the cordless landline does not.
 
Depends on "your local" phone co. Up to about 95? I serviced HVAC. Remember when? Ma Bell? and others began to be broke up and that HORRID bunch of cheap, "you buy'em" phones began to appear? I'd be in a customer's kitchen, calling back to our shop, as I'd gotten a pager alert, or needed parts, or whatever. I'd call the shop no, and get the familiar d d d d d d d d d d d d in the ear, because even though it was a keypad phone, the selector on the bottom was set on "pulse dialing." Often, I would not say anything, LOL, I would just quietly CHANGE it. This made dialing a LOT quicker for the customer

Later, when I was working for Motorola, upgrading some of the 911 stuff, "noise" was starting to "be made" by some of the phone co's that they would "no longer support" pulse dialing for much longer. So far as I know, they don't, around here. I'm pretty sure analog cell is not supported, either.

On a side note, Motorola used to sell what amounts to a mobile / bag phone (cellular) module for stuff like big boats. OK, yachts. This was a cell module with (I forget the name) one of those special modems built in. What this amounted to is, you mounted this module somewhere up on the yacht, OK, 'small ship' with antenna, and wired the thing with conventional phone wire. You could just hook a "regular" POTS phone to the damn thing and it gave you a dial tone!!!! You could use this for phones fax, or low speed computers modems, whatever you wanted. Of course this cost you. Plenty.


"Back in the day" when I was at the amateur club at K6NCG, at Treasure Island, I REALLY set a ham club meeting on it's ear

Someone had made some horrid unauthorized phone call. Now most of use didn't understand. It wasn't simply "long distance" This was San Francisco, and they had these "in between calls, what in hell were they called? Toll something............ So anyhow, they put a DIAL LOCK on the phone!!!! I spoke up and said "Hell that won't stop anybody!!!!" They looked at me like I was from Mars!!! I proceeded to punch the hanger switch 10 times and got the operator!!!!

THIS phone!!!

Positions_007.jpg
 
Sure, they work ok.
AT&T is my phone provider here in the Sacramento area, and it supports all my rotary telephones.
In my picture from left to right.
1929 candlestick, 1932, 1953, 1955
 

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I`ll never get rid of my old rotory wall hanger. This past winter, power went out, cell battery was dead, and I have`nt bought a 12v charger yet. Came in handy.
These are the only phones you can show your anger with the slam/ring in somebodys ear, LOL Now it`s just a pitifull lame beep. Well I guess you could screem then beep.
 
living here in south west Missouri must be similar to other parts of the backwood world!!????
my grip is the phone systems here are like every company has a different on , some are decent some are crap!! my county is very unpopulated so they will never spend any money on the system here. just go new computer because old one was wore out, no memory and ran XP. I admit i'm a 66 yr old dinosaur, I hate modern electronics. give me the rotary phone back! LO
every day, some da____ S__ calls here trying to sell me something, ask for donation I can't afford, or some polioctical recoding. !!! I got new computer on satellite dish, I think I will just get a d_____ cell phone!!!! LOL ( no ipad or u pad). !!!! LOL
who gives ya a free phone and ya pay by the minute?????? I make maybe 1 call per keek, sometimes per mionth!!??????????????????? LOl NO really................
 
d55dave said:
I still keep a dial phone as a back up. It still works here, and It works when the power is off, but the cordless landline does not.
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Just a cordless phone won't work when the power is out. A touch tone phone will also work when the power is out. The power is supplied from the switching equipment for either a touchtone or rotary phone.
 
Neighbor has an old rotary phone....last I was over there it worked just fine....Century Link is our provider...
 
Keith Mopar said:
A touch tone phone will also work when the power is out..
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That's the thing..........Don't get hung up here, pun intended, on "rotary." What you want is a cord connected device, something, preferably with no batteries and no power supply, IE 'not' an answering machine.

I would MUCH rather have a touchtone than a rotary, in case you have to deal with a phone menu, such as calling the power company to report a pole down, etc.

And do NOT let 911 bullshit you. If you think it might be an emergency, IT IS. If it's a tree overhanging a street that might fall on a car, THAT MIGHT BE AN EMERGENCY. Don't let some fecking phone operator tell you different. It's their job, and it's what your tax money is paying for.
 
67Dart273 said:
I would MUCH rather have a touchtone than a rotary, in case you have to deal with a phone menu, such as calling the power company to report a pole down, etc.

Most companies and Government office's here usually start the recorded message with. If you are using a touch tone press (such and such number) if not then stay on the line and an operator will be with you. So there must still a lot of rotary phones being used.
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AT&T built the current network 117 years ago. By & large the copper network hasn't changed by much, yet. Rotary phones pulse, thats the clicking sound you hear when you acuate the rotary thats how the network reads the request. Digital phones have the ability to emulate the pulse as well.
 
Other than all my old rotary phones, i do have a push button, trimline phone for my regular use.
Don't have a cell phone, don't need one, don't want one, in my old age.
I'm a old phone collector, and even have a 1959 pay phone, here in the house that works,
 
Hemi, that black princess phone is awesome!!!!! I keep a trimline around as well but my new kitchen doesn't have a wall jack. Gonna have to call in a favor from one of my uncles.
 
copper phone lines!!!! don't let the s w mo doppers know that, they'll be working the night shift collecting the stuff!!?? LOL
 
HA! I'm going to remember and use that word. "polioctical" :D
 
Jarlaxle said:
Wait...you mean people still use landlines? :)
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Yes! There are parts of this country where cell phones will not work. Either the terrain is too mountainous, or in the case of some areas there is a govt block out on all cell phone signals. This occurs in Pocohontas County West Virginia around the Greenbank National Observatory. No cell towers can be built in the county and no cell phone signals can be broadcast.
 
Rotary phones will work as long as you are served through a conventional copper network. The central office equipment is built to read the clicks that the phone generates as the dial rotates and translate that into numbers. If you take a look at your bill you will see a service called tty on it. This is the feature that allows you to use a touch tone phone. It translates the tone of the button you depress into the electrical signal needed by the CO equipment.

The network is being converted to a digital fiber optic fed system. I doubt the rotary phones will work once you are served on fiber.

Fun Fact: The system of rotary phones sending the signal and central office equipment understanding the signal and routing your call was invented by a guy who was extremely upset with his local operator. He automated the process and we no longer have operators connecting calls.
 
My phone works fine!! And so does the transistor radio you see sitting on the phone. I had to buy a converter to convert the rotary pulses to tones but otherwise it works great.
It was really funny when my 15 year old grandson came over after I had installed the phone. He's all into the high tech stuff and I asked him, "you're into tech stuff, do you know how to use this phone??" He examined it for a few minutes (he didn't want to be embarrassed), then he lifted the ear piece and put it to his ear and heard a dial tone....he says, "Oh yea, this is easy". He then proceeded to poke at each number with his finger tip thinking it was similar to the old push button phones!!! I laughed so hard I couldn't stop!! He said, "That's not funny Grandpa", I said "The hell it isn't!!!!!!


Treblig
 

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When we moved into our Grampa's house which Dad bought when I was six (1954), we still had a "hand crank" wall mount phone. You unhook the receiver, and crank the thing to get the operator, and all out the number you want. Our phone number I still remember, "1-9-F-4" Which meant we were the 19th party on the "farm" line and we got 4 short rings

Even after we got a dial phone, for many years, there was nearly 15-20 people on the "party line". You heard 4 rings for quite a few years............ours was one long, you ignored the two long, the two short, and the 4 short. Then, one year, they finally got us down to just one other ring, and finally, down to a "two party" line. This was about 65 or so.

My Mom's Dad had a heart attack which was not fatal. My Gramma, who was on our line, came down the road to Mom's one summer day yelling that "the damn teenagers would not get off the line." They laughed at Mom. Fortunately, our neighbors a few hundred feet down the road were on "the other" phone line. Mom had me ride my bike down and have them call the ambulance.

Let me tell YOU there were about 4 families of teenage kids on the school bus the next day who looked might sorrowful.................

I don't mind telling ya I helped rub it in a bit.
 
pettybludart said:
I was about to say the same thing.:DWith having a cell phone,the only calls I got on my landline was telemarketers:banghead:Cancelled the landline,save $50 /month.
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I dropped my landline as soon as I could get DSL internet...which turned out to be CHEAPER than the landline! I was paying as much in taxes & fees as I was for the damned phone line.
 
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