Telephones

[raysablade]

As a child I remember the excitement of getting our first home phone back in the early 70s. We inherited our number from the Co-Op furniture department and my mum was still getting calls about sofa repairs 20 years later.

Today I'm looking at fast fibre to premises broadband contracts that require me to give up my landline. It is hard to believe that will have seen my family's first and last telephone in the space of less than 50 years.

 

[Bob McC]

Our first phone was on a party line.
Imagine that!

 

[Tony L]

I refuse to give up my landline as I like my 1934 GPO 232 bakelite phone and No.1 wood bellset (just visible behind the cassettes) too much! I have another modern wireless phone connected to the line, but this one does the ringing. They are just lovely historical artefacts with great design and amazing build quality, really built to last. I enjoy restoring them (I’ve got another near mint 1946 ‘king pyramid’ upstairs plus a few others of various types, even a ‘60s Trimphone) and they all work.

 

[Marchbanks]

Our first phone was on a party line.
Imagine that!

I used to listen to music on the phone.
Imagine that!

Hey, I see it used a Quad 22! So that’s why I liked it...

Here is the very phone I listened on over fifty years ago. Getting it working again is on page 37 of Volume 2 of ‘Things I Really Must Get Round To.’

 

[Bob McC]

But will they still work after the 2025 switch off Tony?

 

[Bob McC]

I used to listen to music on the phone.
Imagine that!

Hey, I see it used a Quad 22! So that’s why I liked it...

Never knew that existed.

 

[Bart]

We had a phone box outside our house in the 50’s - quite handy but people were always knocking the door asking for four pennies change to use it!

 

[Tony L]

But will they still work after the 2025 switch off Tony?

Sadly that’s likely the end-point unless anyone comes up with a local digital to analogue converter to plug it into. I’d be happy enough if I could just get it to ring on incoming calls (which is all I actually use it for), it’s so much nicer than the naff bleeps or crap samples of modern phones. There was at one stage a wireless DECT device you could plug them into, but I’ve not seen more than evidence of existence there. Obviously that wouldn’t work post 2025 and it would require something that intercepted incoming cell-phone calls or whatever. By saying that they’ve been threatening to turn off analogue radio for decades now and the Roberts radio in the bathroom still works fine!

 

[Bob McC]

True!

 

[Joe Hutch]

Our first phone was on a party line.
Imagine that!

Ours was on an extension from my aunt's house, just down the road from us. Anyone wanting to speak to us had to be 'put through' by her first.

 

[Tony L]

Here is the very phone I listened on over fifty years ago. Getting it working again is on page 37 of Volume 2 of ‘Things I Really Must Get Round To.’

Here’s all you need to get it to work (eBay)! Not every UK area still supports pulse dialling, so it may not ring out (it works here ok), but it will certainly ring in and you can answer calls.

 

[mikemusic]

I too remember my parents getting a phone. Might have been a party line too

After thinking seriously about it last year I have now ditched Plusnet for broadband and phone line and gone with Three Mobile Broadband and mobile phone

Less money and no more stupid sales calls
Have to remember to turn the mobile on !
It will be odd

I believe you can take a mobile phone with you when you go out

 

[Marchbanks]

Here’s all you need to get it to work (eBay)! Not every UK area still supports pulse dialling, so it may not ring out (it works here ok), but it will certainly ring in and you can answer calls.

Oh blimey.

Things I have bought this week after reading posts by Tony.
A Nubya Garcia record
A Big Star record
and now High quality dial lubricating oil (enough for several telephones) and other phone bits.

 

[davidsrsb]

My telco gives me a VOIP SIP line in the fibre termination box, so my telephones still work, it even allows a Fax.
Mobile reception in my condo is rubbish so this is more reliable

 

[raysablade]

I used to listen to music on the phone.
Imagine that!

There were quite a few premium services back in the day.

I remember management going on the warpath when the biggest single charge on our office bill turned out to be the William Hill Race Line

 

[gintonic]

didn't dial-a-disc pre-date the premium lines (betting, sexy talk etc)? I thought all those premium lines came about as a result of privatising BT and splitting it from the PO.

 

[raysablade]

didn't dial-a-disc pre-date the premium lines (betting, sexy talk etc)? I thought all those premium lines came about as a result of privatising BT and splitting it from the PO.

Maybe that's right, the William Hill thing would have been in the late 80s.

The older premium services I recall were "dial a disc" and the "speaking clock" both very expensive. According to my mum.

 

[Jamie]

We used to have to use a neighbours in the early 70s till we got our own. It was a 'Trimphone', that the budgie got quite good at impersonating!

 

[Thorn]

We had a phone box outside our house in the 50’s - quite handy but people were always knocking the door asking for four pennies change to use it!

Didn't they know how to tap the number?

 

[Thorn]

I received an email from BT today telling me my landline is going digital, and will shortly be connected via broadband. We need a landline where I am, in a steep sided, treed valley. The mobile reception is atrocious.