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From: gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Taconic Tel
Message-ID: 
Date: 16 Aug 89 18:21:47 GMT
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Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 305, message 2 of 12

Taconic Tel not only has the last nickel payphone, they also have post-payment
phones (at least in certain areas).  I was up in Copake, NY about a year ago
and I had a good look at their payphones.

They were certainly telco provided.  They looked a little like "Charge-A-Call"
phones, but they were brown, and were rotary.  There was a large sign saying
"Do not deposit nickel until party answers -- No money will be returned."
The transmitter was, of course, kept muted until you deposited your coins.

Speaking of Taconic....I remember one fact distinctly.  They're using some
remarkably old equipment.  I visited a friend in Hillsdale, NY and made a
long-distance call.  I dialed 1+NPA+#, and nothing happened.  Okay, I figured,
maybe I didn't need the 1.  So I tried NPA+# and sure enough, the thing just
sat there.  It turned out that you had to dial 11+NPA+#.  I checked it in
the Taconic phone book, and it described it as "1 + DDD Code + Area Code + #"

I always thought that the initial "1" was the DDD code in itself.  Why on
earth would the exchange want TWO of them?

Another interesting fact about that exchange is that it took FOREVER for calls
to process...even local ones.  The phone was true DTMF, so I suspect that
the switch was SxS with a Touchtone front-end.

Any comments, folks?

-G