atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General Telecom News AT&T announces death of pay phone by end of 2008

The AT&T/Bell standard payphone Jeff.

Is that a USOC or a part number?

Part/ID The actual comcode number were a lot longer.

Jeff:

The 1D2 is Western Electric's last "dumb" coin telephone, still used largely by most Bell companies. It's the one with the coin return on the left and has the handset cord coming out of the front face of the phone rather than the side.

There are still plenty of them out there. As for your question, every Bell System part, even Band-Aids, ashtrays, cardboard boxes and trash cans had a nine-digit comcode for ordering purposes. Most comcodes that began with 4XX indicated that they were made by outside manufacturers. 1D2 is just a model/revision number, like a pink 2500 set which has it's own unique nine-digit comcode.

These phones are referred to as "dumb" because all of the call cost calculations were done by equipment in the CO. Aside from the obvious physical strength, they were just the equivalent of a 2500 set inside. Of course, they do have a coin accept/reject relay. Here's a picture of the one that I have in my basement. I'm sure that you've seen these before in Ohio Bell territory, or was that Ameritech, or was that SBC or was that at&t?

The oldest one I ever worked on was a Model 147, built in the 30's.

All things inside were WOOD.

I think the one in my "stash" is a 197, I will have to dig it out to be sure.

When I started with SWBT, back in '65, most of the Pay Phones were equipped with a ROTARY DIAL and they were "3 Slot" that is, they had a seperate slot for a nickel, a dime and a quarter.

When you placed an OPERATOR ASSISTED CALL, the operator would verify what coins you put in by listening to the sound the coins made.

As you dropped coins into the slot, they would pass through the "COIN SLOT" and certain bells or a gong would sound.

The Quarter gong was the lowest sound.

Of course, as time changed, electronics took over.

The "MULTI SLOT" was replaced with the SINGLE SLOT you see today.

And then we went to the TOTALIZER technology.

That device sent a number of tones based on the coin dropped into the slot.

The product numbers went from the 233 range to the 1A1 (Rotary) to 1A2 (Touch Tone).

But alas, I know the Pay Phone is a dying breed.

I only wish I could have scored that old one in the South Dallas Laundry Mat.

I have 2 Nortel QSD2400's in stock that I rent out every summer to a fair near by.

Never wanted to do that, but they just about kissed my ^%$# to avoid paying Bell $450 per just for the week.

I try every year to convince them that they don't need them with 6 year olds walking around with cell phones. They insist they do in case of an emergency.

The last time I used one it was 35 cents for a local call but it has probably increased by now.

50 cents here, that is if you can find one

Fifty cents in DC, Virginia and Maryland.

75 cents in some places in Wisconsin.