Anyone know more about this? French Style?

[HarrySmith]

I had a customer a while back that had about 20 of the KTAS phones. They were pretty neat phones, some had gold plated gongs & switchooks. They also had some very nice silk cords. He had me switch some cords around and repair a couple. They all came from eBay and he never paid more than $20.00 for one.

[Owain]

Wouldn't have been able to?

They certainly weren't SUPPOSED to, but my recollection of the 80's is that more and more people were starting to connect non-Bell System owned telephone sets to the network.

The Bell System was broken up in 1984, and customer-owned sets became legal sometime around then too, right?  (Anyone have a date for that?)

The Carterphone case was 1968.

[Systemagic]

Outstanding research, guys!

The ivory model in the Radio Shack catologue, without the gold filigree, reads as follows.

"Continental/Ivory" Telephone $79.95

"Basic" Styling Goes with Any Room Décor

A rectangular base adds a bold look to this distinguished ivory colored phone with beautiful gold-tone fittings.  Protruding dial lets you dial with ease. With coilded handset cord. 7' base cord. Modular plug.  $79.95.

So... no gold and it's still the same price.  A good resale selling point. (May not mention Radio Shack)  The fittings are "gold tone" versus the chrome fittings found here.  Otherwise the phones are pretty much identical. 

[bingster]

Wouldn't have been able to?

They certainly weren't SUPPOSED to, but my recollection of the 80's is that more and more people were starting to connect non-Bell System owned telephone sets to the network.

The Bell System was broken up in 1984, and customer-owned sets became legal sometime around then too, right?  (Anyone have a date for that?)

The Carterphone case was 1968.

True, but that allowed certain special pieces of equipment to interface with the Bell System.  It didn't allow private citizens to connect non-Bell telephone sets within a house (which was strictly Bell territory).  Theoretically, that free-for-all wasn't allowed until 1985.

Bell did allow a private subscriber to use non-Bell phones before 1985, however.  But you had to buy the phone, give it to the phone company for "rewiring," and then they charged you a monthly fee for equipment rental, anyway.  The number of people who actually went through that process is probably incredibly low.