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From: jyacc!charles@uunet.uu.net (Charles McGuinness)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Why Are Pulse Dial Phones Still Around?
Message-ID: <16011@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 11 Jan 91 18:04:51 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 29, Message 2 of 10


In TELECOM Digest V11I24 Todd Inch <gtisqr!toddi@cs.washington.edu> says:

> I'm amazed that pulse is still around - is support enforced by tariff?

You may find this hard to believe, but some people actually prefer
rotary dial phones!  A while back, my grandmother (who is 88 years
old) asked if I could install a phone for her in the kitchen.  Of
course, I went out and bought one of those nice new phones with extra
large buttons to make things easy for her (certainly easier than
dialing her pre-500 series phone!).

But after I installed it she started complaining: "Honey, that new
phone, it's no good! It keeps dialing the wrong number!".  She seemed
to be getting an 8 whenever she pushed 5.  Of course, whenever I
tested the phone, it worked flawlessly.  It could only be one thing --
pilot error.  I tried to suggest, as gently as possible, that she must
have pressed the wrong keys.  But, that didn't fly.

So, what could I do?  I went to my local AT&T phone center and asked
for a wall mount rotary dial phone.  After spending a few minutes
convincing them that I really knew what I wanted, they led me to a
closet full of these things, and let me pick my choice.

Grandma has been happily rotary dialing ever since.


Charles