On the dial tone: a quaint reminder of the past
Steve Safran January 20th, 2007
An observation today, courtesy of my children. We lost phone service today, only my kids couldn’t figure that out immediately. Why? Because of cellphones, the dial tone as we know it is not the obvious first step in making a phone call. On a cellphone, you enter the phone number, hit “SEND” and immediately hear the ringing. So you can understand the youngsters’ confusion. One other question: how long will it be before we don’t have to dial 1 for long distance on a land line? It’s baffling here in Boston - you dial 1 sometimes even within your own area code. Why do the land line providers still insist on this ancient practice? How hard could it be to change?
16 Comments Add your own
1. Dave | January 20th, 2007 at 11:40 am
You have a landline phone?
Holy crap… talk about dinosaur…
2. Nick Geidner | January 20th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
I cancelled my landline after I realized that the phone wasn’t plugged in for a good month or two and hadn’t noticed.
I just don’t see a practical reason for me to have a landline any time soon…hmmm…maybe if and when I have kids?
3. Joe | January 20th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I hope they don’t do away with the “1″ for long distance calls from a landline. On a cellphone, it’s unnecessary, but on a landline, the recording reminding you to dial a “1″ is the only reminder you have that you’ll be charged extra for the call. Dialing the “1″ is your agreement to be charged long distance. I don’t know how it works in Boston, but here in Portland, you have to dial “1″ within your own area code only when it will incur a long-distance charge. How else would you know if a call to suburb X costs you and a call to suburb Y doesn’t?
On a somewhat related note, I think Canada should have a separate country code. (The country code “1″ applies to both of us). That way I can’t inadvertently call Canada with an innocent-enough looking nine-digit number that racks up tons of international long-distance.
And on yet another somewhat related note, you can make free international calls from any phone by simply calling one of any number of Iowa routers first. Click my name for a site that explains how and way.
4. flotsam | January 20th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
About the “1″
First it is the country code for the US so if you are overseas you have to dial “1″ as part of the number to reach any telephone in the States.
Second it was added to increase the number of dialable (punchable) number combinations available city by city as population grew just as London had to add “4″ for all London numbers to increase the number of dialable combinations available there.
Population growth also accounts for the incresing number of area codes needed.
Me, I’d like to get back to what I remember were the real and good old days when the prefixes were names not numbers and you dialed the first two letters plus five more numbers when making a call.
My exchange in Brooklyn (that’s New York, Steve) was Ulster and so it was UL plus the rest of the number.
To get back to that kind of simplicity or simpler still the days of “hello central can you get me….” would be so wonderfully retro.
5. Safran | January 20th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I REALLY like that suggestion. A good site for figuring out what “words” your phone number makes is phonespell dot org. (Click on my name.)
6. Echy | January 21st, 2007 at 8:07 am
I live in an area with with an overlay area code (703 and 540). My area code is 703. We have to dial the area code on every call. Some calls within the 703 area code require dialing a one others don’t. How am I supposed to know when to dial the one? So, I dial the one on every call I make.
7. thedetroitchannel | January 21st, 2007 at 8:09 am
naturally, the grosse pointe’s prefix was always 88X-, or TU-, which stood for Tuxedo.
8. flotsam | January 21st, 2007 at 10:34 am
Etchy…
unless you live in a local area where you can dial dial/hit/punch/enter seven digits, always use the one.
problem is a phone system now stressed beyond capacity–hence the “1″ and all those area codes to increase the numbers available.
when we first moved into this community 33 years ago, if you wanted to reach a number with the same prefix as yours, all you dialed–and it was dialed then–were the last four numbers.
who said technology simplifies?
9. Joe | January 21st, 2007 at 4:33 pm
In Portland, I have a 503 number. I can call 503 and 971 numbers locally. But there are some 503 numbers that are not local. We always have to dial the area code to distinguish between the 503 numbers and 971 numbers. But we never need to dial a 1 unless it’s long-distance, in which case a recording will tell you to dial a 1. If you always dial a 1, you never know when you’re being charged.
10. Chris Rooney | January 21st, 2007 at 11:01 pm
No need for a 1 with digital phone service like Vonage.
11. Photogonfire | January 22nd, 2007 at 7:49 am
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up my cordless home-phone dialed a number and then hit the “on” button.
12. Echy | January 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 am
Joe,
I would rather always dial the 1 then have to listen to the irritating tone and redial ten numbers. To me knowing I’m being charged for a local toll call isn’t that important.
13. Joe | January 22nd, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Well, to be honest, I don’t really worry about any of that anymore myself, I use my cell phone for everything.
14. JL Watkins | January 22nd, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I have a similar issue, and that’s with news stories that still use the dial tone and modem handshaking sound (”Kshkkkkk…beeeeeep…kahhhhhh”) every time there’s a computer or internet angle. I asked an editor about it a few months ago and he said, “Well, I don’t know what sound to use for broadband…”
15. Safran | January 22nd, 2007 at 8:47 pm
JL: I long ago objected to the “rewinding tape noise.” Every time someone on a TV show rewinds a video (as in - while playing, to watch it again) it makes the chirpy backwards-speaking rewind sound. This, despite the fact that no VCR ever made that noise. (Unless everyone had U-Matics and Beta decks in their house, that is.)
I humbly suggest the “broadband sound” is the sound of an old news model leaking.
16. thomas | December 19th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
so my bro in law likes to call me with trivia stuff at times, and for the most part im not a genius we just like to get answers or see who knows what. usually i call him with a question, and he takes 30 seconds on the net to get the answer, provided hes at the computer. well what iam trying to get at is he called me and stated cell phones have been around since 1980’s and land lines have been around since late1800’s or early 1900’s, why when he uses a land line he has to dial ”1” and a cell phone he doesn’t? well i hopped on the net after i got his message and looked up the answer your site was the first one i looked at, and in about 30 seconds i had and answer and proceeded to call him, thanx.
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