When we moved into our house, there was one black, rotary phone with a cloth covered cord.
When we wanted to connect our phone, the phone company rep told us they would have to come to the house and upgrade the wiring. The installer told us that the phone in the house had been leased continuously since 1948. He rewired the entire system and took the antique with him.
I didn’t think much about the whole deal until today when I saw this news story about leased phones. The poor old woman who lived here had paid approximately $15,000 over 50 years, for six pounds of black plastic and wire.
The lease rate is around $25/month. The baby Bells are pulling in millions from elderly people because they still have a leased phone. :eek: I’m speechless.
Likewise, in many areas, unless you have specifically opted out, you are possibly paying several dollars a month for “inside wire maintenance.” This is also a holdover from the leasing days, when the phone company owned all of the equipment.
When was the last time you had to call the phone company to have them come to your house and fix the wiring?
But, Frank, most of the people still leasing are elderly. Many probably don’t even realize they’re paying so much. The phones aren’t worth much, as phones, although, they may have some collector’s value.
It just seems like the amount these people are being charged is excessive. When they began their leases, they were paying for the new technology of the time, but their equipment hasn’t been updated for decades. When ours was updated, the wiring was still the cloth-covered stuff from the '40s.
I’d like to have one of those phones as a collector’s item. And they were built like tanks. Think that football phone you got for subscibing to Sports Illustrated is still going work in 50 years? Not a chance.
Okay, my super-slow connection finally allowed me to check the link in the OP. The cost quoted there was $29.10 for two phones - $14.55 each. Not as bad as $25, but still absurd.
::missing point:: Did you catch that elderly widow’s name? Ester Strogen? Do you believe that name?
::back on topic::
Actually where I live I don’t think you CAN lease the phone any more. But leased phones were very well built phones, let me tell you. I have one, rotary dial and all, which was installed into my residence in 1973 and which I “leased” until such time as you could make two payments of $15 each and buy it. I think the lease rate in the early '80s, when I opted to buy it, was about $4/month and at the time I got the phone leasing it was the ONLY option.
But it’s a great phone. It has been in continous use since that time, has been knocked off tables, had the receiver slammed down, had things spilled on it, is the most comfy handset to hold for long, long phone conversations, and gets dial tone during blizzards when nothing else in the house is working.
Meanwhile, since my household needs more than one phone, I have been through about 20 of the ones you buy yourself. Planned obsolescence.
Do Not get rid of those old tank-like phones, people. Ever notice what all those new cordless phones and the like have in comon? They all require a seperate power source or batteries. If you lose power, you’re S.O.L.
Those ‘old’ phones Are indestructable. They are called ‘1A-Key’ phones…and the only power they need to work is a dial tone. Its always smart to keep one set like this on hand in case you lose power. (ostensibly to call the power company to come and fix the line)
Tell me about it. I don’t even HAVE a landline, and haven’t had one for the past four years. But I like using my hand-me-down avocado-green rotary phone enough that I’ve seriously considered (in moments of mania?) buying a Dock N Talk just so I can use the damn thing when I’m home.
I have a Cortelco 2500 that I found on the side of the road. New in the box, must have fell off a truck. It’s among the nicest thing I’ve found while cycling (although the cassette of Dr. Hook’s Greatest Hits is right up there too). Basic touchtone phone, and the only one in the house that worked today when the power went out for an hour.
While the lady’s name in the article does seem a bit hokey, the story is probably legit. Slight nitpick though, Lucent isn’t a Baby Bell. The baby bells are the RBOC’s (Regional Bell operating Co’s) created when AT&T was broken up. Lucent was split off of AT&T too but Lucent is a equipment and services provider to telephone companies and other companies.
Well, I still find it odd that people pay for services like AOL today (except for those people who live way out in the boondocks and have little other choice).
However, regarding the old phones…
We went to an auction in Beverly Hills years ago that had the estate of Marlene Dietrich…while there were some interesting photos and memorabilia, there was lots of “old lady” stuff…
I remember two wall mounted, dial phones, in that crappy beige color, with stretched out cords for the handsets that were probably 30 feet long. Mind you, cordless phones had been available for quite some time - but I am sure Marlene probably was quite happy with her old phones and just kept them - although from the stretch strains on those cords, my guess is she sure could have used a cordless every once in awhile.
This is true. Although you don’t need those tank ones. We have a little phone that doesn’t need any power that we keep around just for instances when the power goes out.
I’d wager not too many homes have a PBX, which is what you need for 1A phones to be useful.
More likely, just a plain 500 rotary dial, or a 2500 touch-tone. There’s also a 1500, but it’s really rare - it’s a touch-tone without the * or # buttons. I’ve got three of those rarities in my collection.
My mother-in-law lives in the back desert of New Mexico. She has a huge, red, rotary phone circa 1950. Every so often she gets a call from the phone company about upgrading to a touch-tone system. "Not interested, the free phone still works fine. " Back in the day, to lure people onto the phone network, this phone company installed a phone in your house. When you cancelled service, they came and physically removed the phone. She’s had the same phone for over 50 years and has never actually bought one.
Actually, I needed that a few months ago. My DSL stopped working, and it turned out there was a wire loose inside my house. The Verizon technicians would have charged me $80 an hour to find and fix the problem if I didn’t pay for the maintenance plan. That visit alone was worth four years of line-maintenence.
Of course, with deregulation, you have the option of hiring an independent telecom technician to do that job rather than the phone company’s people, but it wouldn’t be much cheaper if at all.