Telephones... then and now

[k0ua]

We're old now.

View attachment 482975

Bruce

I don't think I have opened one of those things for several years now. I don't miss them a bit. We used to get them delivered here once per year, and I just threw them in the trash. Of course our cable provider, which is also our land line provider now, doesn't publish one. Who needs them?

 

[hawkeye08]

Trust me, CenturyLink Technicians found the problem. Their management however was unwilling to spend the money to fix it. I see this daily.

I was on 1950s wires, with many splices and the last couple years, they were using one wire from two different twisted pair (a wire had failed on two different pairs and there were no more spares and they would not replace the old wire). The younger guys continually screwed up what service we did have, the old guy (only one left around here) would make it work. He finally put notes in the boxes where things were none standard to keep the stupids from messing with things. The local manager was on my speed dial for several years. He knew to send the old guy to get us back up and running. Only so much that can be done without spending some serious money when the infrastructure was neglected for so long.

 

[kcflhrc]

I was on 1950s wires, with many splices and the last couple years, they were using one wire from two different twisted pair (a wire had failed on two different pairs and there were no more spares and they would not replace the old wire). The younger guys continually screwed up what service we did have, the old guy (only one left around here) would make it work. He finally put notes in the boxes where things were none standard to keep the stupids from messing with things. The local manager was on my speed dial for several years. He knew to send the old guy to get us back up and running. Only so much that can be done without spending some serious money when the infrastructure was neglected for so long.

Yep, repairing cable is not always black and white. There is room for a little gray if you can get away with it.

 

[Weedy Fields]

I don't think I have opened one of those things for several years now. I don't miss them a bit. We used to get them delivered here once per year, and I just threw them in the trash. Of course our cable provider, which is also our land line provider now, doesn't publish one. Who needs them?

I still use phone books, my "search engine" of first choice.
I don't have a cell phone and the internet, contrary to what I've been told does not have everything in it.
Like the local barber, he's not in the phone book as a "barber shop", just under his name, and everybody knows him and what he does.
Alot of small business don't do websites but are in the phone book.
I know the phone book is in the internet, but I can find a number in the phone book alot faster than you can with a computer.

 

[turnkey4099]

The first phone I remember in our house was called a "farmers phone". It was a large rectangular wooden box that hung on the wall and housed two big dry cell batteries. You lifted the receiver, made sure no one else was on the line and then turned the crank to "ring up" the operator. The operator would come on the line and you would tell her the number you wanted to call. We were on a multi-party line - - so to know if somebody was calling you, you had to listen and count the incoming rings. Our "ring" was two long & three short. As I remember it wasn't the best at reception or transmission either. That was in 1947.

Boy, that brought back memories, ours was 2 long 4 short. Any call to anyone not on that stretch of wire had to be patched through "central", the phone gal.

 

[ultrarunner]

One of my childhood friends lives almost 9 miles back from Highway 1 deep in a Redwood forest off grid... spring water, generator and propane for backup...

Amazing as it is... the telephone company laid 11 miles of underground in the 1970's under a rural access program... so living in the middle of no where with no TV or Dish service and he has a telephone... even a pay phone where several of the dirt roads branch out for emergency mostly...

He wanted to have an answering machine and set one up through the phone company as there was no reliable power to power one... it is one of the most peaceful and serene places I have ever stayed...

I'm still around quite a few retired that have no cell... it doesn't work in the big city neighborhood where I grew up... plus there is no mandated service for cell or cable that I know... just for voice landlines.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Yep, it's true, VOIP is the future and nothing we can say or do will change that. I would argue the fact that it is more efficient though. Not sure I buy that. Being in Telecom for 37+ years I have seen a lot. VOIP by far is the most painful change we have seen.

Yes, it's a painful change, but there is no question about the efficiency. With POTS, a complete circuit is tied up for the entire duration of the call, even when man and wife are just being silently mad at each other or when teenagers are being so madly in love they can't speak.

But with packet switched networks, that dead time is used for other calls. It's not wasted. And it turns out there is a TON of dead time in the tyupical conversation, even when we don't realize how much there is.

And stop to think about how much time is wasted just dialing. With POTS, all that time you are dialing the number, the entire circuit back to the switch is tied up. Speed dial is one thing, but even that is measured in seconds. And manual dialing? Double digit seconds.

Packet switched? Milliseconds.

The difference in efficiency is probably close to an order of magnitude, and then we can talk about all the neat things you can do with IP telephony that you can't do with POTS.

 

[sd455dan]

Yep, repairing cable is not always black and white. There is room for a little gray if you can get away with it.

Gray... i was thinking Slate

 

[kcflhrc]

Gray... i was thinking Slate

Ahh yes, a brother telecomer. Purple or Violet?

 

[k0ua]

Ahh yes, a brother telecomer. Purple or Violet?

Violet!