Premier Telecom model 2600 - Trimline clone

[del20nd]

The other day at thrift I found something I'd never seen before: a Premier Telecom model 2600.

We've all seen plenty of Trimline knockoffs, but this one is probably the closest I've come across in terms of look and feel. In fact, aside from the badging, it's pretty much indistinguishable from the genuine desktop model.

The base is made of solid metal just like the genuine article. It has almost the right heft to it as well, though the stickers and the 1990/1991 date stamps on the underside betray it for what it is.

Internally, it's quite a bit different from an original Trimline, and much closer to a Premier 2500 in terms of components. It still makes use of a bell, carbon microphone, and what appears to be the same modular speaker as a 2500 with an adapter fitted, but everything is simplified and in some cases cheapened. The hook switch is an off-the-shelf microswitch for example.

Still, the construction of this thing is by no means cheap. Most striking to me is the curved circuit board it uses in the handset. That's not something most companies would engineer if they were on a budget.

The one other thing that struck me about this particular phone is how it hasn't yellowed at all.  It was either stuck away in a box for a very long time or won the plastic formulation lottery, but all of the parts, including the cord, are 100% clean and matching.

This phone is interesting to me because I've seen plenty about the 2500/2554 Premier phones, but this one seems to be completely under the radar. I tried to find any information I could, or even just evidence of one being sold at auction, but so far I haven't found anything. There's some mention of a model 2700 Trimline knockoff when I search these forums, but it seems to be a completely different product from what little information I can find.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some pictures. At the very least, maybe if someone else ever finds one of these and googles it, at least one relevant search result will pop up

[del20nd]

After a little bit more digging, this looks to be the same set that was first sold as the Northwestern Bell "Favorite". The base construction and language on the sticker look very similar.

It's hard to say who was contracting who to make these sets, but it seems like, at least initially, they wanted these to look and feel as close to the original Trimlines as possible. I've seen later Northwest Favorites and they get progressively less faithful as time goes on.

[G-Man]

Premier was originally the house brand for North Electric Supply, a.k.a. North Supply, Sprint-North Supply, etc.

They originally had Cortelco private label 2500/2554 instruments and components such as dials, cords, handsets, receivers/transmitters, replacement housings, ringers, and so forth.

Later on, North sourced these items directly from overseas suppliers and I have long suspected Lucky Goldstar (LG) as being the primary manufacturer of most if not all of those sets.

Of course like most things, as time went on, manufacturers often bow to the bean counters and start taking shortcuts to lower their cost.

In general I have found these products to be on par with the traditional telecom manufacturers and have often specified them for various projects.

After divestiture, North Supply and its various incarnations became a replacement for the various supply and logistics functions that were once performed by Western Electric on behalf of may of the Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs).

[Robert Gift]

Does the dial light from telephone system-powered LEDs?
Surprised that it has a carbon-granule transmitter instead of dynamic microphone.

Wonder if I have seen one at a thrift store andid not buy it because it was not WE.

[del20nd]

Does the dial light from telephone system-powered LEDs?
Surprised that it has a carbon-granule transmitter instead of dynamic microphone.

Wonder if I have seen one at a thrift store andid not buy it because it was not WE.

Yes, the dial does light from line voltage.

That's the one thing on my phone that's not working 100% properly, so it probably didn't show up in the pictures. The LED will light but sometimes it's very dim. It can be temporarily fixed by squeezing the phone near the keypad. 

I've cleaned the pin header from the circuit board to the keypad (and fixed some flaky looking solder connections), so I suspect it might be a bad solder joint on the LED itself. Unfortunately the keypad seems to be a self contained module held together with plastic welds, which means that opening it will be a nightmare. I'd rather just let sleeping dogs lie since the problem is so minor.

Given how cheap the Northwestern Bell version of this phone seems to be, and that it's probably the exact same thing, I might pick one up for parts.  The build quality here is good overall, but not perfect.

[del20nd]

Premier was originally the house brand for North Electric Supply, a.k.a. North Supply, Sprint-North Supply...

Thank you for this information!  I've been looking around, but there's not too much documentation on the history of Premier, North supply or who actually made this phone "on their behalf", and it's all muddied by the fact that "North Supply/Electric" is a pretty generic name in the telecom and electronics world.

I was able to find some of the later history. There are press releases about Sprint North Supply being spun off and renamed Embarq around 2006, then being bought up by a company called KGPCo in 2009. KGPCo still seems to hold the Premier brand, but I can't tell if they still manufacture anything or are selling off back stock. They still have an active catalog of 2500/2554 clones but it's over 10 years old.

The early history was more elusive. I have no idea exactly when Premier was first bought up by North Supply or used as a brand, for example. I'd guess around the break up, though I've seen some reports of people owning Premier branded phones dated as early as 1983. It's an interesting point in time, seeing how all of these phone companies were operating near the breakup.

[del20nd]

I'm uploading a ringer demo from the Premier 2600 here.

Based on the youtube demonstrations I've watched, the ringer is pretty much exactly the same as the earlier (up to 1972 or so) Trimline variants with the more open sounding, resonant bell.

EDIT: I'm having some trouble watching the embedded uploaded video without downloading it, so I'm throwing in a link to a youtube uploaded version as well. They should be the exact same video, just wanted to give people the option.

[poplar1]

I'm uploading a ringer demo from the Premier 2600 here.

Based on the youtube demonstrations I've watched, the ringer is pretty much exactly the same as the earlier (up to 1972 or so) Trimline variants with the more open sounding, resonant bell.

I assume you are referring to the earlier WE Trimline P1A ringer with a brass gong.
However, the ringer mechanism in the Premier photos more closely resembles the M1A ringer in the early WE 702
Princess or the AE Styeline ringer.

[del20nd]

I assume you are referring to the earlier WE Trimline P1A ringer with a brass gong.
However, the ringer mechanism in the Premier photos more closely resembles the M1A ringer in the early WE 702
Princess or the AE Styeline ringer.

This is probably correct.  I'm referencing a demonstration of a 1972 Trimline model in this video I found on youtube (ring is at 7m 22s):

He doesn't specifically mention which ringer it has, but it lines up. To me, the Premier sounds allot closer to this phone than the later Western Electric Trimline models.

[Stormcrash]

Older Trimlines had P1 ringers with brass gongs that sound quite different, and a lot more pleasant, than the later steel gong P1 ringers. First time I heard one it was quite a shock, so that could be why GPOCollector's Trimline sounds closer to the M1 ringer in a lot of clones

[Contempra]

I'm referencing a demonstration of a 1972 Trimline model in this video...

For the dial, it is the same system as that of the Contempra. but shorter, more compact. thanks for the video .