Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway
From: albert%endor@husc6.harvard.edu (David Albert)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans
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Date: 28 Sep 89 18:35:38 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 415, message 3 of 5

In article  Gabe Wiener  writes:

>Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us?  Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE,
>or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_
>2500 set?

I don't know sets by their numbers, but if the 2500 is the standard,
pre-buy-your-own-phone desk set with a roughly rectangular base, then
the answer is that they are no longer manufactured, but that "refurbished"
models are still available.  In 1983 (or so), when Illinois Bell allowed
you to purchase the phone you had been leasing from them at a discount,
I did so.  About 6 months ago the touchtones on my phone stopped working
(no, it had nothing to do with line polarity -- that's the first thing
I checked -- and it happened a few days after I dropped it on the floor,
so maybe it was my fault) and I decided to get a new one.  I was finally
able to purchase a "refurbished" touchtone set exactly like my old one,
for $49.95, direct from AT&T, but they told me that none of their new
desk-model touchtone phones had mechanical ringers.  (For the same price,
AT&T said they'd fix my old phone, but that hardly seemed like a reasonable
option).  Also available for $49.95, they said, was an in-line modular
mechanical bell attachment that would work with any phone, so for those
who want the features of new phones and the sound of old ones, that might
be worth considering.  I decided to go with the complete phone.


David Albert			      | "What are you trying to do,
UUCP: ...!harvard!albert	      |   change the world?"
INTERNET: albert@harvard.harvard.edu  | "No, just our little corner of it."

[Moderator's Note: But you know what I *really* miss are the 2515
sets. Those were the 2500 'two line turn button' sets, with the plastic
knob in the corner for selection of line one or two. The turn button also
could be depressed, and the corresponding blue/white pair of wires (mine
has three pairs, at least) used to sound an intercom buzzer elsewhere.
Furthermore, I got a little neon bulb at Radio Shack and wired it in there
so it would illuminate the little button when the phone rang. All that
AT&T will do for you now is replace them one on one for *lease* customers
only. Its a shame to see these great old sets no longer being built.  PT]