On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:42:32 -0500, Jim Redelfs
wrote:

In article PrROi.4685$8F.426@trnddc05, "Pop`"
wrote:

Some of the more modern offices won't recognize rotary dialing though.
And if you don't have it now, it's unlikely the phone company can give
it to you

I respectfully disagree.

(Oops! This is usenet: Your muther wears combat boots! g)

There are still PLENTY of working, rotary dial (pulse) telephones in service
"out there". With the possible exception of internet-based telephony (VOIP -
Voice Over Internet Protocol), I am confident that all PUBLIC telco central
offices still accommodate pulse dialing. (PBX, etc, probably not.)

Western Electric 5ESS and Northern Telecom DMS10/0 are easily the two, most
popular switches and they support pulse dialing.

Back in "the day" I used to be able to actually dial phone numbers
that way; can't do it anymore thoughg.

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want to try these days, either. It takes a quick hand,
fer sure.

If for some reason, your central office has pulse dialing turned off
(this would be extremely rare), I recall seeing local rotary
pulse--tone converters that you could buy. You'd have to do a search
on the Internet for them, however.

In the old days (and still for most POTS Plain Old Telephone Service),
the CO (Central Office) supplied power via a big battery bank that was
typically backed up with a diesel genset. Simple power failures
rarely affected phone service unless the phone lines themselves were
down or under water.

Nowdays, some customers have advanced (they tell us) to fiber optics
(or coax cable) and there is a conversion box either on the inside or
outside of your house that requires AC Power and may or may not have a
working battery backup. (If yes, then you typically would be
responsible for the battery maintenance).

The purpose of the box is to convert the digital signal from the fiber
or coax to a simulation of Plain Old Telephone Service and a regular
two-wire connection to your old traditional telephones. In some
cases, your phones will not work during a power failure. In other
cases, they might. It's worth it to check by temporarily unpluging
this box and waiting a few mintutes to check the phone. It's one of
the few instances of the phone becoming LESS reliable due to modern
technological advances.