Can you still attach a rotary dial phone to telephone company lines?

[2nd_Law]

@Princhester

When I was a kid we knew a particular number that if you dialled it and hung up, your phone would ring a few seconds later. The usual rumour was that it was suppposed to be used by phone technicians to see if a phone repair had worked. It was also taken as read that if anyone from the Phone Company had caught us kids using it we’d be in Big Trouble. It was a very very secret number. The number was mfrl grphle mmblbe…

Ringback numbers

[BMalion]

@Princhester

When I was a kid we knew a particular number that if you dialled it and hung up, your phone would ring a few seconds later. The usual rumour was that it was suppposed to be used by phone technicians to see if a phone repair had worked. It was also taken as read that if anyone from the Phone Company had caught us kids using it we’d be in Big Trouble. It was a very very secret number. The number was mfrl grphle mmblbe…

“Do you have Prince Albert in a can?”

[Kevbo]

Yup.

Once, I walked across the carpet and picked up the phone to dial a number. As I touched the first button, a spark flew from my finger tip. That entire column of numbers (2,5,8,0) never worked agian. So after that I had to dial numbers by clicking the switch hook for those digits. Zeros were a bitch, and it was not too uncommon for me to mis-dial. I finally got a new phone when Kevbabe started spending time at my house, and I got tired of dialing for her every time she needed to make a call.

[Cisco]

@Magiver

Remember the good old days when you could dial your own number,hang up, and the phone would ring?

What was so good about those days? My parents would do that all the time from their bedroom.

me: hello?
them: bring us coffee.

[gigi]

@t-bonham@scc.net

The dial phone in my kitchen (installed 1972) still works fine.

Yep, we had that one black wall phone in the kitchen. You’d be in the attic or even upstairs and hear it start ringing and you’d have to take off running to get there in time. Folks with new-fangled multiple telephones might only let it ring four times, thinking that meant you weren’t home. :smack:

Sad to think it must have gotten updated by the new owners.

[Jinx]

I’m surprised no one mentioned two things:
a) The telephone companies, perhaps under FCC guidelines, have had to support “POTS” or plain old telephone service.
b) Recently, there was an announcement that the FCC (as I recall) is passing a regulation that phone cos. will no longer have to support analog (rotary or pulse dialing) thereby rendering these rotary phones useless. Did anyone else hear that? I am not sure of the cut-off date, but I’m sure we’ll hear more when the date approaches. It may 2010.

• Jinx

[astro]

@Jinx

I’m surprised no one mentioned two things:
a) The telephone companies, perhaps under FCC guidelines, have had to support “POTS” or plain old telephone service.
b) Recently, there was an announcement that the FCC (as I recall) is passing a regulation that phone cos. will no longer have to support analog (rotary or pulse dialing) thereby rendering these rotary phones useless. Did anyone else hear that? I am not sure of the cut-off date, but I’m sure we’ll hear more when the date approaches. It may 2010.

• Jinx

Thanks for the update. I had wondered about that. Rotary/pulse dialing is so long in the tooth at this point I can’t think of any truly practical reason to support it.

[mks57]

@astro

Thanks for the update. I had wondered about that. Rotary/pulse dialing is so long in the tooth at this point I can’t think of any truly practical reason to support it.

It’s useful for low-cost devices with autodialers. You don’t need a DTMF encoder. It will also work on severely impaired lines.

[Jake]

@Princhester

When I was a kid we knew a particular number that if you dialled it and hung up, your phone would ring a few seconds later. The usual rumour was that it was suppposed to be used by phone technicians to see if a phone repair had worked. It was also taken as read that if anyone from the Phone Company had caught us kids using it we’d be in Big Trouble. It was a very very secret number. The number was mfrl grphle mmblbe…

Yeah, I sure remember that. The number we used was 960-(Dial Tone) 6. This was 50 years ago. If they haven’t changed it by now, tough darts.
And yes, we were afraid of the phone police and the operators coming to our house and throwing all of us in jail for being bad. Not to mention never again having a phone in our house!

[gotpasswords]

@Jinx

I’m surprised no one mentioned two things:
a) The telephone companies, perhaps under FCC guidelines, have had to support “POTS” or plain old telephone service.
b) Recently, there was an announcement that the FCC (as I recall) is passing a regulation that phone cos. will no longer have to support analog (rotary or pulse dialing) thereby rendering these rotary phones useless. Did anyone else hear that? I am not sure of the cut-off date, but I’m sure we’ll hear more when the date approaches. It may 2010.

• Jinx

Thankfully, there are fairly cheap devices that will interpret rotary dialing into tones.

Generally, they go for about fifty bucks, like this one or this one. (Search page for CID6K)

However, about the only thing more pervasive than televisions is telephones, and it took years to sort out the digital TV cutover. Given that telphones have life safety uses (eg: call the fire department or paramedics) and TV sets don’t, I can’t envision rotary dialing will go away for a long time, if ever. Plus, the telephone collectors’ community would certainly be up in arms over any pending plans to disable rotary dialing.

[Hail_Ants]

@Jinx

I’m surprised no one mentioned two things:
a) The telephone companies, perhaps under FCC guidelines, have had to support “POTS” or plain old telephone service.
b) Recently, there was an announcement that the FCC (as I recall) is passing a regulation that phone cos. will no longer have to support analog (rotary or pulse dialing) thereby rendering these rotary phones useless. Did anyone else hear that? I am not sure of the cut-off date, but I’m sure we’ll hear more when the date approaches. It may 2010.

• Jinx

I’ve heard nothing about this. You may be thinking of the cutoff for analog TV next year. Or you may be confusing it with the cutoff of analog cellular phone service. There are still millions of people in the US with POTS (plain old telephone service) so ending it would be a major thing.

I had read that the old phones with the cranks were kind of funky to use on today’s lines so the antique one I bought didn’t have a crank. When I gave it to her we tested it by having me call it with my then new, cutting edge Startac flip phone (this was about 10 years ago). Kinda weird using the two together!