DocAndersen
The concept of the rotary dial phone, it using the dial, produced a series of electronic clicks on the line that denoted a number. Each of those numbers was then broken into three components. The areas code, the prefix, and the unique identifier. The potential for numbers then meant that any single name out there has plenty of headroom. There are some cities, however, that have consumed the majority of a prefix. In that case, they get a second, third, and fourth. I used to live in Bloomington, Indiana, the entire country where we lived plus four others, all had an area code of 812. In the city of Bloomington, where I grew up, they used the 33x prefix for entity numbers. Other designations denoted other areas in the 812 area code.
The same is true for IP addresses. The original Internet Protocol or IP addressing scheme was called IPv4. The spring was 000.000.000. There are, of course, a finite number of combinations in that range, and we literally will run out of IPv4 address in the next 20 years. The reality of IPv6 was introduced; it has a different addressing scheme and gives us many more addresses to use for computing devices. You see, when the telephone numbers were first invented, there were less than 1000 telephones in the entire world. Now, many people have two, three, and even phone unique telephone numbers, so where we once had 1000 total numbers in the world, we now have between 10 and 12 billion unique phone numbers.
This conversation is an extension of one I had in the comments yesterday. It has to do with the reality of where we are today. In a world where things are not always as they seem, interesting and telephone addressing are precisely what they seem. Except they aren’t, in the early days, if you crossed an area code (812 calling 317), you paid long distance. Now there are no long-distance charges, but there are international phone charges. Now area codes and prefixes fill up pretty quickly, so they add another prefix. Near where I live, there are three depending on what part of the country you are in. There are also carrier-specific (Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T). But the newest and most interesting trend is that some people get their first cellular phone and never change that number. They understand that phone in Indianapolis and move to Florida with the same name. There no longer are long-distance changes, some number year after year.
I am waiting for the lawsuit when one parent leaves their telephone number to one child, and the other children want that number!
This work is Copyright DocAndersen. Any resemblance to people real or fictional in this piece is accidental (unless explicitly mentioned by name.)
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Question of
Caller number 7 wins a prize, it took an hour just to dail!!!!
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Yes
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Question of
Did you ever have a rotary dial phone?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you remember the arrival of touchtone?
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Yes
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Question of
Do you remember the fun phones you could get?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you remember party lines?
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Yes
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Oh yes, I remember the rotary phones, I had one years ago. I loved it! 🙂
I remember waiting for the dial to turn. It actually taught me patience. I wasn’t a patient child!
Q: CALLER NUMBER 7 WINS A PRIZE, IT TOOK AN HOUR JUST TO DAIL!!!!
Yes (4 votes) – 100%
Q: DID YOU EVER HAVE A ROTARY DIAL PHONE?
Yes (4 votes) – 80%
No (1 votes) – 20%
Q: DO YOU REMEMBER THE ARRIVAL OF TOUCHTONE?
Yes (5 votes) – 100%
Q: DO YOU REMEMBER THE FUN PHONES YOU COULD GET?
Yes (4 votes) – 100%
Q: DO YOU REMEMBER PARTY LINES?
Yes (4 votes) – 100%
Of course I remember the old rotary phone. Heck my grandparents had the really old phones with a crank and one earpiece only. I used to love those old phones and was disappointed when the touch phone came along. But progress cannot be stopped and now I am touch typing just about everywhere….
i do remember those old crank phones, they were before my time, but I have seen some of the restored ones.
My grandfather and mother used to tell me about party lines, if one of your neighbors liked to talk you could never use the phone!
You could still accidentally dial the wrong number, by trying to dial too fast, and not letting the previous number complete its redial back yet.
It did have a nice pleasant sound to the dialing, lost now by a digital beep.
9
click click click (six more)
4
(click click you get the pattern)
yeah it is a lot different I miss that sometimes.
Rotary phones were what everyone had when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s I actually did not like it when the push button ones came out,
i used to do radio trivia call-ins so I loved the push buttons. I could dial faster.
I never had a “fun” phone (POUT!!) I remember that relatives in the country had party lines but we never did living in the city.
Re: lawsuit over kids fighting over phone number left to them in estate. I wouldn’t doubt that at all. Some would want it just so the others can’t have it. Sad world we live in now.
it has become a world of great highs, and oh so disappointing lows.
You are right on about that one!
my wife always says even when I am right, i am still wrong.
I’m sure you will be telling her that someone said you were right today online, huh? LOL
Her response is always the same. If you husband is on the internet alone, and he says something he is still wrong!
Well I guess the old saying, “Some things never change” will apply here!
that is very true, sometimes we only notice change because it doesn’t happen often!
Living in a rural are we had all of the above. Party lines, the works. Was so excited to get away from that. Dustin had a Garfield phone. And a football phone!
i remember the SI football phone!
I remember those phones. I had it at work.
I remember the one we had at home, i tried to convince my dad to get one of the new touch tone phones, he said no.
I haven’t had a phone for a long time. So my first phone was already in touch.
in the US now they bundle phone, internet and sometimes TV in one package that is cheaper than if you buy one of the three on its own.
We can also buy such packages in our country. I have a package that includes TV, internet, phone and cell phone.
that is a nice way to do it, we call that bundles! it is cheaper the way they do that
You are right. We can get these packages at a very reasonable price. I pay $ 69 for the package
i work for the phone company so it is an employee benefit but i do love the bundle prices!
I remember these phones well … there is probably another one at home … to commemorate the good old days
i got my first call from a girl on such a phone!
And they were very high quality … they still work today …. practically indestructible
They were made well but they were made to last longer than the things we have today
Today, everything they do is done for a couple of years, not like it used to be …. I had a washing machine for 20 years …. nowadays you can be happy if it works for 5 years
that is truly the sad reality we live in. In part because the washing machine is so much more complex than they used to be.