Bell memo on the 5302 set

[Dennis Markham]

Do you know that there are people out there STILL paying rent on their equipment?  I just received an e-mail today from a woman that wrote that ATT just came out and picked up her mother's phone because she didn't want to lease it any longer.  So she's looking for a "new" replacement....just like the one mom used to have.

Here's one story:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14838642/

[Tonyrotary]

I do remember at my Uncle's house he once owned in Chicago, there were still a couple of old hard wire connector blocks but no 4 prong jacks. The hard wire jacks were no longer used but I believe they were still hooked up. After Ma bell got split up my Uncle put in a few more phones, the majority being the 554 including the garage. The only room not to have a phone was the bathroom.

[Tonyrotary]

Dennis,

The company that was spun off Ma Bell that handles the leases of these phones still has phones for lease! To Include the 500's! I will try to find the link. Ok here you go. http://www.qltcls.com/

They still have 554's and rotary trimelines!

[McHeath]

The math does not add up on this story of the 14k phone rental.  The website lists "Traditional rotary" for $4.45 a month per phone.  The story said the woman had a rotary, so that's at least 4.45 a month, but then they say she paid 29.10 a month in rental fees.  So she must have had 6.5 rotary phones in her house being rented to get to that rate, which is crazy and not what the reporting implies, which sounds like she had only 1 rotary phone.  That's $2,242.80 for a 42 rental fee, which is kinda high eh, but not 14k. 

[bingster]

I've heard that story before, and it's preposterous.  The $29 may have been her total phone bill, but the rental charges would have been a small fraction of that amount, and couldn't possibly add up to the amount that was reported. 

[AET]

Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones — the kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger — in the 1960s. Back then, the technology was new and owning telephones was unaffordable for most people.

I think that that statement is a little far-fetched.

She wants her rotary back too!!  Good for her!

Also, great to see that they're still leasing them traditional rotary phones!  I can't beleive that things like that are still going on!  Just think at 4.45 a month!  I can't beleive anyone's doing that, I may be buying a princess this weekend for 4 bucks!

[mienaichizu]

why do people need to rent in which they can own the same phone by just looking up at eBay, even at a cheaper price

[McHeath]

why do people need to rent in which they can own the same phone by just looking up at eBay, even at a cheaper price

The rental used to be mandatory before the Bell System was broken up in 84'.  Some older people who have not moved since then still rent, the company doing the renting was still using the AT and T logo until last Fall when they had to stop due to some agreement.  A lot of folks laugh about the idea of people renting their phones, but then will think nothing of the TV cable boxes, satellite dishes and gear, and such that are commonly rented today.  Even most of our cell phones are being rented in a manner of speaking, we are paying back part of the subsidy for the low initial cost through our cell phone fees.  The company still renting the phones tosses in a prescription drug plan to help pay the high cost of prescriptions for folks, so that's an added perk that probably gets more than a few people in seeing as how high monthly drug costs can be.  While I agree that it does not make economic sense to rent a phone today, I do see how the prescription discount plan could make it worthwhile, my mom has over 700 bucks a month in prescriptions. 

[GG]

Back a ways to the 5302 topic: 

The primary purpose of the 500 set was (due to the self-compensating transmission network combined with T1 transmitter and U1 receiver), for use in suburban and rural areas at longer distances from their respective central offices.  Bell issued specs for transmission zones around each CO, whereby if you were close to the CO you should have a 302 (or 5302), and further away, a 500.  The increased cost for the 5302 was probably for the new housing and dial plate marked with dots, as compared to buffing or painting the 302 housing. 

The layer of procedures around getting a 500 set where one wasn't really needed, were intended to weed out people who just wanted "the newer one" on impulse.  And even though the ringer volume control could have been fitted to 302s, that would have become problematic by way of introducing a whole 'nother layer of inventory management and record-keeping for 302s. 

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When I was a kid, you got one 500 set included in your basic phone bill, and each additional was just under a dollar a month.  A little more for Princess and a little more than that for Trimline. 

Renting out the phones was sensible because it enabled the telcos to control what got connected to their networks, which was critically important for party lines (to be sure your phone rang correctly, and in SATT areas, sent the correct billing impulse to the CO).  But the side-effect was unsurpassed quality and the ability to recycle components indefinitely.  Today we use the term "eco-industrial design" for what the Bell did just because it made good business sense. 

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Modular stuff: 

The goal there was to reduce installer/repair tech visits to homes & offices, by making handset and line cords user-replaceable, and by enabling people to pick up new phones at their local telco office and go home and plug them in.  The flat cord stock was cheaper to make, there was the added benefit that all phones were now "movable" to any jack in a house, etc. 

When I was a kid, first time I saw a Bell tech install a modular phone, he held up the mod plug at the end of the cord and said, "You know what this means, right?  It's going to be the downfall of our industry."  That prediction was spot-on.