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Have you ever...

  • Used a telephone book (95%, 183 votes)
  • Spoken to a (human) telephone operator (61%, 117 votes)
  • Reversed charges on a call (43%, 83 votes)
  • Made a call from pay phone / phone box (94%, 181 votes)
  • Received a call on a pay phone / phone box (41%, 79 votes)
  • Used a phone card (75%, 145 votes)
  • Dialled from one exchange to another to route a call (14%, 27 votes)
  • Used a rotary dial phone (92%, 177 votes)
191 voters. Poll end: 1 day ago

in reply to Neil Brown

snac - Link to source

Paul Martin

@bmacDonald94@hostux.social It was TIM originally. And only 123 in Director Areas; 8081 on other types of exchanges. (246 8081 was an unpublished number for it in Director Areas)

You can still call 123 on a BT line but it'll cost you. It used to be local call rate but now it's quite expensive.

Of course my Asterisk instance has the speaking clock (Pat Simmons) on 123.

@Mr. Bill
in reply to Neil Brown

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Dr Ro Smith

Most of these. Not sure about the phone card. I don't *think* so, but I'm not entirely sure.

I've talked to operators but I don't think been routed from one system to another, unless this includes dialling 9 to dial out, or being forwarded by a receptionist?

Never received a phone call in a phone booth, but used to use them regularly to call parents as a child and teenager.

in reply to Colin the Mathmo

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Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@ColinTheMathmo 100% on all of them. I also remember the loud "cuckoo" tone on inbound calls to a payphone (to prevent reverse charge calls being made via the operator), also during late 1980a if you tried some calls on level 1 such as 16 (Dial a disc) and another one (it was some number like 159) you would just hear a loud cuckoo sound from *inside* the phone box and the call would be abruptly cleared down (presumably this is because a metering pulse had come down the line but you hadn't put any money in)
@Colin the Mathmo
in reply to Neil Brown

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Jessamyn

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Most I'm not sure what "Dialled from one exchange to another" means specifically, maybe a UK thing?

I did buy this bad boy new in box from my local thrift store last week. I have a Bluetooth dongle in my house so that I can make calls with it. Fake dialtone and everything!

in reply to Neil Brown

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Eric Lawton

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Our first phone didn't have a dial.

We just picked up the phone and asked the operator and she would plug our cable into the slot for the number we were calling.

If it was long distance (i.e. to another exchange), we could hear her talking to the operator at the next exchange along the line.

England, early 1960s.

In the 2 years before we got a dial, the operator never had a male-sounding voice.

@Dianora

@Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Eric Lawton

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David Hembrow

@EricLawton We had those phones in NZ in the 1970s. Had to hold rhe handset down and turn the handle on the phone to ring a bell for the operator. Then pick up, wait for the operator, and say who you wanted to talk to. Optionally with a bit of local gossip. She (yes, always she) called party lines by doing morse code with the ring, and hopefully only the people in the house being called would pick up. But anyone else could listen in if they wanted to @neil @Dianora
@Neil Brown @Eric Lawton @Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Neil Brown

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kauer

We had no phone for quite a while. When the phone line came through the valley, we were on party line with a few households on it. The phone was a big black thing; no dial, just a crank on the side. We were two longs and a short. Anyone (or everyone) in the group could listen to any conversation. For numbers outside the group, we did one long ring and asked Mona Ingram to connect us...
in reply to Neil Brown

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Parker Morse

The Olympic marathoner Don Kardong, in his later career as a reporter, once failed to gain access to the press truck at the Boston Marathon. He compensated by going out the day before the marathon and writing down the numbers of a series of phone booths along the course, then calling them from his hotel room during the race and, if anyone picked up, asking them to describe what was going on. The resulting article was titled "Thirty Phone Booths To Boston".

reshared this

in reply to Neil Brown

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SpaceLifeForm

Based upon the poll results, it is obvious that there are many experienced people here. Also old.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=n0geurEs…

Rotary Phone Stumps Two Teenage Boys in Hilarious Bet

Two 17-year-old boys are challenged to make a phone call on a rotary phone. The hilarious video of their effort has many older people either laughing or cryi...
Audacy (YouTube)
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