Great Changes in the Telephone

Communications News, Sept, 1984

Changes in the telephone itself have been the most visible development in communications during the past two decades. Many functional, many for fun . . . the changes in the telephone have made it both a bona fide communications terminal and a decoration.

When we published our first issue of Communications News in October 1964, the telephone had just moved out of the era of "basic black". The telephone on our desk was a beige but the dial was still rotary.

The gentleman who brought a little color into the telephone industry was Fred Kappel who became president of AT&T in 1956 and was the Bell System's chief executive officer for a decade, first as president and then as chairman. Until the mid-1950s the phone company's attitude on phone color was much like Henry Ford's had been on his Model T . . . the customer can have any color desired, so long as the color wanted was black! Altho color phones in white and pastel colors were available on a custom basis (and used chiefly in the movies!), Kappel moved to make color phones readily available to all subscribers, calling the sales strategy "moving out of the dark ages." Kappel continued the razzle-dazzle with the "Princess" phone in 1959, the "Touch-Tone" phone in 1963, and the "Trimline" in 1965.

"Touchtone" was, of course, much more than a cosmetic change in the telephone. Initially it was simply a way to speed dialing. But with the development of electronic switching and digital transmission, the 12-button pushbutton telephone became a desk top communications terminal.

Telephone manufacturers have, over the last two decades, tried to out-do each other in designing ever more attractive telephones to serve every basic need.

For the home, each offers a small colored phone for the bedroom, a wall-hanging phone for the kitchen, and many other styles.

For the office, each has phones with special features built in such as single-digit dialing of frequently called numbers, speakerphone capability, call-forwarding and so on.

And, attached to a modern PBX and other equipment, each of these office phones can have such features as "electronic mail box," least-cost routing and complete call accounting.

Beyond utilitarian features, telephones have become art objects . . . the delight of decorators, nostalgia buffs, hobbyists and children of all ages.

L. M. Ericson . . . who shared the 100th anniversary of the telephone with the Bell System in 1976, marked the occasion with the introduction of its slim, one-piece, stand up Ericofone . . . a truly modern telephone that is a decorator's dream.

For the executive there is the telephone enclosed in a rich leather-covered box.

For nostalgia buffs there is the ornately decorated "French phone" or the old candlestick phone . . . in basic black or red-white-and-blue.

For drinkers there is the phone in the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle . . . or the Jim Beam 100 Digit Dial Phone Decanter billed as "a real conversation piece".

And for children there are a variety of telephones, the most popular being the bright Mickey Mouse phone.

Perhaps the most heart-warming example of changes in the telephone and of the marvels of electronics is the story of Susan Chambers, one of 17 telephone operators who handle the thousands of calls coming in to the bustling Yale-New Haven (Connecticut) Medical Center. Susan became blind and continuation of her job as a console attendant for the center was made possible last year when Yale University installed a Northern Telecom SL-1 PBX, complete with a unique light-emitting diode (LED) sensing probe. The probe is slightly larger than her thumb. By moving it over the attendant console in front of her, she can determine the status of each line on her console by tones that are transmitted through the headset she wears. Since she is not able to read the information in the directory, she has access to the talking Information Management System called TIM II, designed by Maryland Computer Services, through use of her desktop computer. She types a request into the computer and its electronically generated voice provides the answer through her headset. She then gives the caller the requested information. The entire process takes less than a minute.

Beyond these many clever, creative, colorful and useful telephones which have taken us out of the dark ages during the last two decades, two very important developments make the changes in the telephone a momentous happening of the 1980s.

The first is the development and surprising popularity of the cordless telephone.

AT&T believes that the cordless phone is still in its growth stage as a product category. Their research shows that 20 percent of all households without a cordless phone are likely to purchase one. And 45 percent of households which have a cordless phone are likely to purchase another one. This, AT&T feels, indicates a tremendous consumer acceptance of the cordless phone.

The sudden takeoff of cordless telephones which occurred in 1982 is expected to be followed by spectacular growth in the cordless market during the mid-1980s, according to a market research report from International Resource Development.