I remember my grandmother having one for awhile, but somewhere along the line she switched to a push-button phone. Too bad. The rotary one was kinda cool.
I have an rotary phone I inherited from my mom. I put it in the basement or the detached garage if I’m working there.
Brian
Apparently this is still a lucrative business for AT&T
According to Benjamin Dover, over a million people still LEASE their phones from AT&T!
My buddy has a rotary phone in his office at home. Says nothing screams “urgent phone call” like that loud RINNNNNNG RINNNNNG
Phouchg
Lovable Rogue
oh, and yes…
You can still lease a rotary dial phone
Phouchg
Lovable Rogue
Yup, right in my room.
I made a little thing so a LED lights up when the line’s already in use, and I’m working on a hold button.
Oh, while we’re on the topic, doese anyone know where I can get an automatic dialer for my rotary phone, like the one they had in the matrix? E-mail me if you do
I have one. Yes, when kids are over at my house and they need to use the phone I have to show them how to dial.
The first time this happened I was quite surprised to learn that some people had never seen rotary phones before. It’s the sort of thing that makes you feel old.
AT&T and Lucent Technologies were recently sued for this practice. Something about not informing people they did not have to lease a phone from the phone company. The case was settled and both companies shelled out some bucks if i remember correctly.
BTW, the AT&T CLS mentioned on the web page is not part of AT&T. It’s a part of Lucent using the AT&T name under a licensing agreement.
I have a rotary fondly named “The Mold Phone”. It was the phone I had in my room when I was in my teens, and it has followed me everywhere these past 20 years. This clunker is the perfect gift for the bored creative type, and has been altered a hundred times since I first got it.
The reason it’s called the Mold Phone TM is when Hellraiser first came out, I covered the phone with a thin layer of expandable foam insulation (the stuff in a can) and embedded a hundred or so toothpicks into the foam. I also unhooked the bell and installed a scream.
The screams (or any digital sound maker) get fried pretty quick, and the toothpicks have long since broken or fallen off. The phone now looks like a haz-mat suit should be worn. It now sits in my basement, waiting for it’s next revision. I unhooked the bell (I can’t believe they all used to be bells, man that is LOUD) and tinted it with a green highlighter to make it look even more organic. But it still works fine.
Does anyone remember that when the earpiece would get static in it, we would take it and whack it against a hard surface, and that would clear it up? Try that with today’s phones!