The Old Telephone Company,  Essex, England
Established in 1986
Exclusively old telephones and parts for 25 years
I have personally restored and sold over 3000 old telephones

  Ring back memories with     an old Bakelite telephone        

For Spare Parts Click Here                            For Repairs and Conversions Click Here

Contact        How to find me

All telephones are available to buy by mail order
£15 post and packing to all parts of the UK.
Smaller parts post and packing is from £3.50 to UK only
You can collect from my shop at weekends by arrangement

Up

 See also the Rotatone page for details of how to fix the problem

Pulse or Tone Dialling        

You may have noticed many references to pulse and tone dialling on this web site and those of my competitors.

What is it all about?

For more than 100 years, telephones have been fitted with dials which work by what is called the loop disconnect system. We know it as pulse dialling.

During the last 40 years or so this has gradually been superseded by tone dialling. It is usually associated with the push button keypad as used on modern telephones.

When used with a compatible public telephone exchange (they all are now) this makes for much faster dialling than with the rotary dial and provides more features.

In the last few years other companies appeared in competition with BT. Mostly they were cable TV companies such as Telewest. Initially their lines worked with dial telephones. But as their networks expanded with additional services such as broadband, a decision was made to discontinue this facility.

The result now is that few of the old cable TV lines and none of new installations support pulse dialling. Since Virgin Media took over Telewest and others, the process has accelerated.

More recently TalkTalk has arrived on the scene. TalkTalk use the local BT telephone exchange and line from the exchange to your house. So far so good. But in the last year or so TalkTalk have been installing their own equipment in the BT exchanges. This new equipment is not compatible with pulse dialling.

BT lines to the best of my knowledge are at present unaffected.

So what does this mean to me with a dial telephone?

• If you have a telephone account with BT for a domestic line, you should be be ok. The dial telephone will work well.
   
• If you use a Virgin Media or TalkTalk line, you will hear the telephone ring, and you can answer it. But most likely you will not be able to dial out.
   
• A Rotatone device can be fitted to most dial telephones which will enable them to work on Virgin Media and TalkTalk lines.

See the Rotatone page for more information, or call me on the number below.

Click here to see the Battlesbridge Antiques Centre web site

Credit/Debit Cards are the preferred method of payment. I no longer accept cheques.

If you wish to place an order, or have an enquiry, please read all below.

Please call me (Gavin Payne) by telephone if you wish to place an order for a telephone, spare parts, or have an enquiry.  I can usually be reached 9.00am to 5.45pm any day, including weekends. Calls in the evening are not appreciated and could make me very grumpy. The number is 01245 400601.

I am in the shop most Saturday and Sunday mornings between 10.00 and 12.00. These are the only times I am in the shop for the sale of spare parts, conversions and repairs.  Conversions and repairs can often be carried out while you wait.

If you have a telephone that you want to know more about, or have it repaired or converted, please have it right next to you when you call. Please also have a selection of small flat bladed screwdrivers to hand.
 I do not give advice for DIY repairs or conversions or valuations of any kind over the telephone or by email. Please bring the telephone to my shop for assessment, but always call me first before bringing it in.

Emails to gp@theoldtelephone.co.uk or copy and paste gp@theoldtelephone.co.uk into your email programme or app .

By post to The Old Telephone Company, The Old Granary, Battlesbridge Antiques Centre,
 Battlesbridge, Essex SS11 7RE.  

The Old Telephone Company respects your privacy, and will not divulge any information about you to a third party.
Copyright © 1996 to 2013 by The Old Telephone Company