The Daring Dufas wrote:


It was once illegal or at least not sanctioned by Ma Bell for an
individual customer to attach anything to phone company lines.
Believe it or not, at one time, you could not buy a telephone
at your local drug store. Phone service was essentially one big
monopoly controlled by The Bell System.

Aye, when you ordered phone service, a technician would come over and
install the line *and* the phone, which was hardwired into the wall (no
modular jacks back then).

Of course, nobody ever complained about this, we were just too happy to get
the miracle of a telephone in the house.

Jon