Telco Choice?

[HarrySmith]

I just stumbled across an old 500 on eBay and a sticker on the bottom caught my eye. Telco Choice. Just dial 10297 + 1 + area code + number. A lot of dialing on a rotary phone! I am guessing this is the newest sticker, must have been after the phone was purchased. Dialing inot a different phone co?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153125322965
( dead link 04-07-22 )

[LarryInMichigan]

That was for long distance calls.  When AT&T's monopoly on telephone calls was lifted in the 1980s, dozens, if not hundreds of alternative long distance services appeared, and they were given five-digit prefixes which could be dialed before the long distance phone number so that the call would go through their system.  Eventually, the local telcos allowed customers to specify their preferred long distance carrier so that long distance calls would automatically be routed through that carrier without the subscriber having to dial a special prefix.  It has been decades since I dialed one of those prefixes.

Larry

[Jim Stettler]

They also had prepaid long distance cards. You dial a 800 number then put in the code, then dial the number.
I used to program the 800 number and card codes, and commonly called long distance #'s  into a speaker phone with memory dial.

After the person answered I switched to the cordless phone.

I also used another speaker phone with memory dial to access my bank accounts. I would plug in the phone when I did my banking, and unplug it when I was done.
JMO,
Jim  S.

[HarrySmith]

OK, I seem to vaguely remember something along those lines. If that was the case then wouldn't the sticker have been better on top of the phone so one could see it while dialing?