WI AT&T Labs never invented Touchtone? Touchtone was introduced to the American public in the mid-60's, famously at the New York World's Fair in 1964. Before mid to late 70's in the US, almost all telephones (save large corporations, telephone installations, and the government) had a "rotary dial". This is a wheel with ten holes (1 through 0, in this order.) Each turn of the wheel produces a series of clicks (or 'pulses') of the corresponding number that signals a mechanical process at an telephone exchange or a switchboard. Compare this with the tones that are processed through computerized exchanges today.
The predominance of tone-capable lines and household Touchtone by the 90s permitted a number of technologies not possible through pulse technology. Voicemail and dialup are two technologies that might not have taken off without Touchtone. While I think some modem banks at AOL might have accepted pulse calls, I believe that for the most part tone was expected by the mid 1990's. Pagers would definitely be out, and the budding cellular technology of the day would not have taken off without the de facto use of DTMF (touchtone tones) for dialing and data input.
WI Americans were still using pulse today? Would voicemail, pagers, dialup, and by extension the touchtones of cellular phones, be possible? Would alternate forms of computerized and cellular communications arise?
Aside: I miss rotary telephones. Most lines will still accept pulses, and it's so satisfying to turn the wheel and hear the clicking from a clunky Western Electric phone rather than push cheesy plastic buttons on a disposable phone. Memories ...
The predominance of tone-capable lines and household Touchtone by the 90s permitted a number of technologies not possible through pulse technology. Voicemail and dialup are two technologies that might not have taken off without Touchtone. While I think some modem banks at AOL might have accepted pulse calls, I believe that for the most part tone was expected by the mid 1990's. Pagers would definitely be out, and the budding cellular technology of the day would not have taken off without the de facto use of DTMF (touchtone tones) for dialing and data input.
WI Americans were still using pulse today? Would voicemail, pagers, dialup, and by extension the touchtones of cellular phones, be possible? Would alternate forms of computerized and cellular communications arise?
Aside: I miss rotary telephones. Most lines will still accept pulses, and it's so satisfying to turn the wheel and hear the clicking from a clunky Western Electric phone rather than push cheesy plastic buttons on a disposable phone. Memories ...
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