🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 3 Jan 2018 11:26:04 -0800 (PST), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>
> If you live in any of the U.S. states where AT&T is the 
> primary phone carrier — prepare for a big change: Landline 
> phone service might be going the way of the dinosaur.
> According to the Chicago Tribune, state legislatures in 
> 20 of those 21 states have given AT&T the OK to end landline 
> service in their states so the telecommunications company can 
> focus and invest more in wireless or internet-based phone 
> networks. California is now the only holdout among states 
> where AT&T is the legacy phone carrier.

You cannot use your 300 baud modem anymore? What a shame. How do I dial
in to my BBS?

> full article at:
> https://www.moneytalksnews.com/landline-phone-disappearing-in-these-20-states/

Seriously, this is a folklore group.

And if you still want to post new articles here, yours is 6 months
old. Please get at least something more up to date.

But IMO, better find a different group to post news. Here we post olds. :-)
-- 
Andreas
You know you are a redneck if
you have started a petition to change the national anthem to "georgia
on my mind".

On Wed, 3 Jan 2018 11:26:04 -0800 (PST), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

>If you live in any of the U.S. states where AT&T is the 
>primary phone carrier — prepare for a big change: Landline 
>phone service might be going the way of the dinosaur.
>According to the Chicago Tribune, state legislatures in 
>20 of those 21 states have given AT&T the OK to end landline 
>service in their states so the telecommunications company can 
>focus and invest more in wireless or internet-based phone 
>networks. California is now the only holdout among states 
>where AT&T is the legacy phone carrier.
>
>full article at:
>https://www.moneytalksnews.com/landline-phone-disappearing-in-these-20-states/

After buying out Southern New England Telephone, which had previously
never been a part of AT&T, AT&T then ran the service into the ground,
and having milked it for all it was worth, sold the landlines to
Frontier, which doesn't even have online ordering.

On Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 3:17:01 PM UTC-7, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:

> You cannot use your 300 baud modem anymore? What a shame. How do I dial
> in to my BBS?

More importantly, how can you use a DSL modem instead of a cable modem, so that 
high-speed internet is at least a duopoly?

John Savard

On Wed, 3 Jan 2018 18:51:38 -0800 (PST), Quadibloc <jsa...@ecn.ab.ca>
wrote:

>On Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 3:17:01 PM UTC-7, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>
>> You cannot use your 300 baud modem anymore? What a shame. How do I dial
>> in to my BBS?
>
>More importantly, how can you use a DSL modem instead of a cable modem, so that 
>high-speed internet is at least a duopoly?

If you consider DSL to be "high speed".  I think its day is coming to
an end.  The "traditional" phone companies are moving to fiber and
giving bandwidth in the same ballpark as the cable companies.  Then
there is cellular and satellite.  At my location I have at least 4
options.

On Wed, 03 Jan 2018 23:51:56 -0500
J. Clarke <jclarke...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 3 Jan 2018 18:51:38 -0800 (PST), Quadibloc <jsa...@ecn.ab.ca>
> wrote:
> 
> >On Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 3:17:01 PM UTC-7, Andreas Kohlbach
> >wrote:
> >
> >> You cannot use your 300 baud modem anymore? What a shame. How do I dial
> >> in to my BBS?
> >
> >More importantly, how can you use a DSL modem instead of a cable modem,
> >so that high-speed internet is at least a duopoly?
> 
> If you consider DSL to be "high speed".  I think its day is coming to
> an end.

	Perhaps we should borrow from the radio world:

LS - early modems - hundreds of bits per second 
MS - late modems and early digital lines - tens of kilobits per second
HS - DSL and early fixed wireless - a few megabits per second
VHS - FTC and fixed LTE 4G - around 100 megabits per second
UHS - FTH and fixed 5G - around a gigabit per second
EHS - Metro links and the like - 10 gigabit per second and up

	It needs extending to handle the kind of backbone links Morten used
to talk about.

-- 
Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays
C:\>WIN                                     | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins.                |    licences available see
You lose and Bill collects.                 |    http://www.sohara.org/

hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> If you live in any of the U.S. states where AT&T is the
> primary phone carrier — prepare for a big change: Landline
> phone service might be going the way of the dinosaur.
> According to the Chicago Tribune, state legislatures in
> 20 of those 21 states have given AT&T the OK to end landline
> service in their states so the telecommunications company can
> focus and invest more in wireless or internet-based phone
> networks. California is now the only holdout among states
> where AT&T is the legacy phone carrier.
>
> full article at:
>
https://www.moneytalksnews.com/landline-phone-disappearing-in-these-20-states/
>
I didn't think that Michigan's legislature had OK'ed it yet.  However,
the last time I checked was last summer.

/BAH

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 08:46:06 +0000
Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:

> LS - early modems - hundreds of bits per second 
> MS - late modems and early digital lines - tens of kilobits per second
> HS - DSL and early fixed wireless - a few megabits per second
> VHS - FTC and fixed LTE 4G - around 100 megabits per second
> UHS - FTH and fixed 5G - around a gigabit per second
> EHS - Metro links and the like - 10 gigabit per second and up

I'm waiting for LHS (ludicrously high speed)  :)
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LudicrousSpeed

Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> writes:
> LS - early modems - hundreds of bits per second 
> MS - late modems and early digital lines - tens of kilobits per second
> HS - DSL and early fixed wireless - a few megabits per second
> VHS - FTC and fixed LTE 4G - around 100 megabits per second
> UHS - FTH and fixed 5G - around a gigabit per second
> EHS - Metro links and the like - 10 gigabit per second and up

I had project started very early 80s I called HSDT (t1 & higher speed
links) ... high-speed data transport ... some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt

mid-80s was having some equipment built on the other side of the pacific
and one friday just before leaving for a visit, got an email
announcement from communication group raleigh announcing new internal
discussion group ... with the following definition:

low-speed               <9.6kbits
medium-speed            19.2kbits
high-speed              56kbits
very high-speed         1.5mbits

Monday morning on the wall of a conference room on the other
side of the pacific

low-speed               <20mbits
medium-speed            100mbits
high-speed              200-300mbits
very high-speed         >600mbits

internal network links ... some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

were required to be encrypted ... and mid-80s there was claim (by link
encryptor product maker) that the internal network had over half of all
link encryptors in the world. some of this involved arguments with
various governments around the world, especially when links crossed
national boundaries ... for instance this is old post that includes
corporate locations (around the world) that added one or more links
during 1983
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#8 Arpa address

I really hated what I had to pay for T1 link encryptors and faster speed
encryptors were hard to find. Mid-80s I got involved in doing encryptors
that would cost less than $100 to build and handle several.  mbytes/sec
(rather than mbits). Initially the corporate crypto product group
claimed that it significantly weakened the crypto standard (and couldn't
be used). It took me 3months to figure out how to explain to them that
rather than significantly weaker, it was actually significantly stronger
than crypto standard. It was hallow victory, they then said that I could
make as many as I wanted ... but they all had to be shipped to
gov. location on the east coast. It was when I realized that there were
3 kinds of crypto in the world, 1) the kind they don't care about, 2)
the kind you can't do, and 3) the kind you can only do for them.

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

On Wed, 03 Jan 2018 17:17:00 -0500, Andreas Kohlbach <a...@spamfence.net> wrote:
>On Wed, 3 Jan 2018 11:26:04 -0800 (PST), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>
>> If you live in any of the U.S. states where AT&T is the 
>> primary phone carrier — prepare for a big change: Landline 
>> phone service might be going the way of the dinosaur.
>> According to the Chicago Tribune, state legislatures in 
>> 20 of those 21 states have given AT&T the OK to end landline 
>> service in their states so the telecommunications company can 
>> focus and invest more in wireless or internet-based phone 
>> networks. California is now the only holdout among states 
>> where AT&T is the legacy phone carrier.
>
>You cannot use your 300 baud modem anymore? What a shame. How do I dial
>in to my BBS?

As far as I know, 300 baud modems can still be used, and if you were dialing
into a text-based BBS the experience might be tolerable.

The cited article is woefully absent of any specific details, however one
important concern is the incumbent phone companies' efforts to terminate their
status as "carrier of last resort."  This is an obligation to to serve all
customers within their territory, including extending facilities where necessary
to provide service, even if that connection will not ultimately pay for itself.
The implication is that if phone companies can shed this obligation, people in
rural and remote areas may be denied basic phone service because it will be
deemed unprofitable to provide either wireline or wireless connections.

Phone companies have another incentive to discontinue wireline service in favor
of forcing customers into wireless "solutions:"  In the U.S. wireline service is
regulated; wireless service isn't.  Wireless customers have no price protections
or service level guarantees.

The hurricanes and wildfires in 2017 alone should have been enough to reinforce
the need for a robust communications infrastructure in the event of natural
disasters.  The unfortunate trend with the widespread adoption of cellular
phones and dropping of landlines, is the communications network is becoming more
fragile, not less.

On 2018-01-08, Questor <usenet@only.tnx> wrote:

> The hurricanes and wildfires in 2017 alone should have been enough to
> reinforce the need for a robust communications infrastructure in the
> event of natural disasters.  The unfortunate trend with the widespread
> adoption of cellular phones and dropping of landlines, is the
> communications network is becoming more fragile, not less.

And the sound quality is going to hell in a handbasket.

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored.  Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

On 8 Jan 2018 17:00:06 GMT, Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>
wrote:

>On 2018-01-08, Questor <usenet@only.tnx> wrote:
>
>> The hurricanes and wildfires in 2017 alone should have been enough to
>> reinforce the need for a robust communications infrastructure in the
>> event of natural disasters.  The unfortunate trend with the widespread
>> adoption of cellular phones and dropping of landlines, is the
>> communications network is becoming more fragile, not less.
>
>And the sound quality is going to hell in a handbasket.

We have been stuck with short term fixes for several decades. Too bad,
hopefully the next super volcano eruption or earthquate, or meteor hit
wont cause our comms to fail.

On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:05:31 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> And the sound quality is going to hell in a handbasket.

Would anyone know accurately the bandwidth (or another measurement)
of a cellphone voice path vs. a landline voice path?

I heard the traditional landline voice path was 4 KHz.

I hate using a cellphone because the sound quality is so bad.
In addition, cell phone users are usually in a noisy location
and the phone is picking up ambient noise.  In the old days,
the phone company provided phone booths to give both privacy
and shelter from ambient noise.

On Tue, 09 Jan 2018 13:26:36 -0800, hancock4 wrote:

> On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:05:31 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> 
>> And the sound quality is going to hell in a handbasket.
> 
> Would anyone know accurately the bandwidth (or another measurement) of a
> cellphone voice path vs. a landline voice path?

In the UK, the non-DSL information capacity of a landline is about 3000 
baud (symbols per second). Roughly speaking, with no-DSL technology, 
that's about 50kb/s.

With DSL, it varies with line length and quality, the worst typically 
being about 500kb/s.

These are very approximate.

-- 
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
 http://www.mirrorservice.org

On 2018-01-09, hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com <hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:

> On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:05:31 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>
>> And the sound quality is going to hell in a handbasket.
>
> Would anyone know accurately the bandwidth (or another measurement)
> of a cellphone voice path vs. a landline voice path?
>
> I heard the traditional landline voice path was 4 KHz.

300-3300 Hz or thereabouts.

> I hate using a cellphone because the sound quality is so bad.
> In addition, cell phone users are usually in a noisy location
> and the phone is picking up ambient noise.  In the old days,
> the phone company provided phone booths to give both privacy
> and shelter from ambient noise.

Not helping are the modern designs, especially Bluetooth headsets.
It seems to be thought that the farther the microphone is from
your mouth, the sexier it looks - but the more ambient noise it
picks up as the gain increases to compensate for the increased
distance from your mouth.  A properly adjusted boom mic used in
aviation or other noisy environments will almost touch your lips.
(Hey, sort of like classic telephone receivers...)

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored.  Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:

> Not helping are the modern designs, especially Bluetooth headsets.
> It seems to be thought that the farther the microphone is from
> your mouth, the sexier it looks - but the more ambient noise it
> picks up as the gain increases to compensate for the increased
> distance from your mouth.  A properly adjusted boom mic used in
> aviation or other noisy environments will almost touch your lips.
> (Hey, sort of like classic telephone receivers...)

Sometimes for minimal values of "almost".

In the not very distant past, working as a hospital nursing supervisor,
SWMBO unscrewed some of the phone mouthpieces used by nursing
staff. Deeply impregnated with congealed drool and other scum.
Splendid growth medium for pathogens.

Where are telephone sanitizers when you need them?

ASCII Telephone sanitizer's toolkit
-----------------------------------


   O-----------------/\/\/\/\/\/\/\-->        #1 Reamer


   O----------------~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/-->       #2 Reamer


   O----------------||||||||||||||||||-o      Grill brush


   O:::::::::::_________________________]     Hair hook


   O::::::::::::---------------------------------      Dust brush
                       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
                        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\



   O::::::::::_____________ _________________________
                           X                      |  ]  Lint tweezer
    ::::::::::------------- \______________________/

-- 
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada

On Tue, 09 Jan 2018 18:20:19 -0400, Mike Spencer wrote:


> Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
> 
>> Not helping are the modern designs, especially Bluetooth headsets.
>> It seems to be thought that the farther the microphone is from your
>> mouth, the sexier it looks - but the more ambient noise it picks up as
>> the gain increases to compensate for the increased distance from your
>> mouth.  A properly adjusted boom mic used in aviation or other noisy
>> environments will almost touch your lips. (Hey, sort of like classic
>> telephone receivers...)
> 
> Sometimes for minimal values of "almost".
> 
> In the not very distant past, working as a hospital nursing supervisor,
> SWMBO unscrewed some of the phone mouthpieces used by nursing staff.
> Deeply impregnated with congealed drool and other scum. Splendid growth
> medium for pathogens.
> 
> Where are telephone sanitizers when you need them?

They went on the B Ark.

-- 
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
 http://www.mirrorservice.org

On 2018-01-09, Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> wrote:

> On Tue, 09 Jan 2018 18:20:19 -0400, Mike Spencer wrote:
>
>> Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
>> 
>>> Not helping are the modern designs, especially Bluetooth headsets.
>>> It seems to be thought that the farther the microphone is from your
>>> mouth, the sexier it looks - but the more ambient noise it picks up as
>>> the gain increases to compensate for the increased distance from your
>>> mouth.  A properly adjusted boom mic used in aviation or other noisy
>>> environments will almost touch your lips. (Hey, sort of like classic
>>> telephone receivers...)
>> 
>> Sometimes for minimal values of "almost".
>> 
>> In the not very distant past, working as a hospital nursing supervisor,
>> SWMBO unscrewed some of the phone mouthpieces used by nursing staff.
>> Deeply impregnated with congealed drool and other scum. Splendid growth
>> medium for pathogens.
>> 
>> Where are telephone sanitizers when you need them?
>
> They went on the B Ark.

Could you run a little more hot water for me?  Thanks.
And pass me that rubber duck.

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored.  Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

On 1/9/2018 3:26 PM, hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:05:31 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> 
>> And the sound quality is going to hell in a handbasket.
> 
> Would anyone know accurately the bandwidth (or another measurement)
> of a cellphone voice path vs. a landline voice path?
> 
> I heard the traditional landline voice path was 4 KHz.
> 
> I hate using a cellphone because the sound quality is so bad.
> In addition, cell phone users are usually in a noisy location
> and the phone is picking up ambient noise.  In the old days,
> the phone company provided phone booths to give both privacy
> and shelter from ambient noise.
> 
> 
I believe the bandwidth for a cellphone connection depends on the 
technology. But more important, it depends on how many calls the telco 
is trying to squeeze onto a channel without having to upgrade their 
tower or frequency assignments. As one might guess, the telco's 
definition of "optimum" may be different from the telephone user's 
definition.

The ambient noise thing is more at the feet of the telephone 
manufacturer, where "looking sexy" is likely to be the priority. As 
someone else said, having the mic close to the mouth is best. If 
you're using it in a location where the air may be moving, having a 
windscreen (the foam shields you see on the mics of TV crews) would 
help. In the old days phones didn't tend to be in noisy locations 
outside a full booth. And the ones designed for noisy locations 
sometimes had a mouthpiece guard that cupped around the mouth, to help 
block external noise.l

On 1/9/2018 3:40 PM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> On 2018-01-09, hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com <hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:05:31 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>
>>> And the sound quality is going to hell in a handbasket.
>>
>> Would anyone know accurately the bandwidth (or another measurement)
>> of a cellphone voice path vs. a landline voice path?
>>
>> I heard the traditional landline voice path was 4 KHz.
> 
> 300-3300 Hz or thereabouts.
> 

With some help for the treble by using µ-law algorithm and the a-law 
algorithm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C-law_algorithm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-law_algorithm

https://tinyurl.com/pjx3kp8

Each single-call channel is 8,000 bytes per second... 125 microseconds 
for a frame containing several calls.  A theorem says that to adequately 
transmit an analog signal in digital form... one needs *twice* the 
number of samples as the the analog frequency.  4,000 Hz == 8,000 samples.

Many people have done a lot of thinking about this stuff... you need a 
good telephony book to understand all the intricacies.

-- 
numerist at aquaporin4 dot com

On Wed, 10 Jan 2018 02:18:58 +0000, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> On 2018-01-09, Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 09 Jan 2018 18:20:19 -0400, Mike Spencer wrote:
>>
>>> Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
>>> 
>>>> Not helping are the modern designs, especially Bluetooth headsets.
>>>> It seems to be thought that the farther the microphone is from your
>>>> mouth, the sexier it looks - but the more ambient noise it picks up
>>>> as the gain increases to compensate for the increased distance from
>>>> your mouth.  A properly adjusted boom mic used in aviation or other
>>>> noisy environments will almost touch your lips. (Hey, sort of like
>>>> classic telephone receivers...)
>>> 
>>> Sometimes for minimal values of "almost".
>>> 
>>> In the not very distant past, working as a hospital nursing
>>> supervisor,
>>> SWMBO unscrewed some of the phone mouthpieces used by nursing staff.
>>> Deeply impregnated with congealed drool and other scum. Splendid
>>> growth medium for pathogens.
>>> 
>>> Where are telephone sanitizers when you need them?
>>
>> They went on the B Ark.
> 
> Could you run a little more hot water for me?  Thanks.
> And pass me that rubber duck.

And the jinnan-tonnyx.

-- 
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
 http://www.mirrorservice.org

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 9:59:24 PM UTC-5, Dave Garland wrote:

> The ambient noise thing is more at the feet of the telephone 
> manufacturer, where "looking sexy" is likely to be the priority. As 
> someone else said, having the mic close to the mouth is best. If 
> you're using it in a location where the air may be moving, having a 
> windscreen (the foam shields you see on the mics of TV crews) would 
> help. In the old days phones didn't tend to be in noisy locations 
> outside a full booth. And the ones designed for noisy locations 
> sometimes had a mouthpiece guard that cupped around the mouth, to help 
> block external noise.l

Historically, Western Electric took great pains to design the
telephone set for maximum comfort and acoustical efficiency.
Below is a link to a design paper--the tiny details they 
considered for every component is incredible.

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/catalogs-manuals-educational-docs-by-company/western-electric-bell-system/publications-and-educational-documents-by-date/418-500-set-design-1949/file

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 3:20:37 PM UTC-7, Mike Spencer wrote:

> Where are telephone sanitizers when you need them?

Oh, no, our planet faces the same doom as Golgafrincham!

John Savard

hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com writes:
>On Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 9:59:24 PM UTC-5, Dave Garland wrote:
>
>> The ambient noise thing is more at the feet of the telephone 
>> manufacturer, where "looking sexy" is likely to be the priority. As 
>> someone else said, having the mic close to the mouth is best. If 
>> you're using it in a location where the air may be moving, having a 
>> windscreen (the foam shields you see on the mics of TV crews) would 
>> help. In the old days phones didn't tend to be in noisy locations 
>> outside a full booth. And the ones designed for noisy locations 
>> sometimes had a mouthpiece guard that cupped around the mouth, to help 
>> block external noise.l
>
>Historically, Western Electric took great pains to design the
>telephone set for maximum comfort and acoustical efficiency.
>Below is a link to a design paper--the tiny details they 
>considered for every component is incredible.
>
>http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/catalogs-manuals-educational-docs-by-company/western-electric-bell-system/publications-and-educational-documents-by-date/418-500-set-design-1949/file
>

I'm still using two 500 sets in my home (both date from the mid to late 60's).  The
manufacturing date is stamped on the speaker in the handset (unscrew the ear-end and
look at the back of the speaker for the date).

scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:
>hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com writes:
>>On Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 9:59:24 PM UTC-5, Dave Garland wrote:
>>
>>> The ambient noise thing is more at the feet of the telephone 
>>> manufacturer, where "looking sexy" is likely to be the priority. As 
>>> someone else said, having the mic close to the mouth is best. If 
>>> you're using it in a location where the air may be moving, having a 
>>> windscreen (the foam shields you see on the mics of TV crews) would 
>>> help. In the old days phones didn't tend to be in noisy locations 
>>> outside a full booth. And the ones designed for noisy locations 
>>> sometimes had a mouthpiece guard that cupped around the mouth, to help 
>>> block external noise.l
>>
>>Historically, Western Electric took great pains to design the
>>telephone set for maximum comfort and acoustical efficiency.
>>Below is a link to a design paper--the tiny details they 
>>considered for every component is incredible.
>>
>>http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/catalogs-manuals-educational-docs-by-company/western-electric-bell-system/publications-and-educational-documents-by-date/418-500-set-design-1949/file
>>
>
>I'm still using two 500 sets in my home (both date from the mid to late 60's).  The
>manufacturing date is stamped on the speaker in the handset (unscrew the ear-end and
>look at the back of the speaker for the date).

It's really too bad, however, that the scan at the aforementioned
link is missing half its pages ....

On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 9:08:26 AM UTC-5, Scott Lurndal wrote:

> I'm still using two 500 sets in my home (both date from the mid to late 60's).  The
> manufacturing date is stamped on the speaker in the handset (unscrew the ear-end and
> look at the back of the speaker for the date).

Actually, a 500 set has other components that could be made at
various times.  These include the base and transmitter capsule,
both have the date stamped on them.  

On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 10:20:51 AM UTC-5, Scott Lurndal wrote:

> It's really too bad, however, that the scan at the aforementioned
> link is missing half its pages ....

try

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/catalogs-manuals-educational-docs-by-company/western-electric-bell-system/publications-and-educational-documents-by-date/blr/11402-51sep-blr-p414-500-set-tuffnell/file

organization's website
https://www.telephonecollectors.org/

hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com writes:
>On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 10:20:51 AM UTC-5, Scott Lurndal wrote:
>
>> It's really too bad, however, that the scan at the aforementioned
>> link is missing half its pages ....
>
>try
>
>http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/catalogs-manuals-educational-docs-by-company/western-electric-bell-system/publications-and-educational-documents-by-date/blr/11402-51sep-blr-p414-500-set-tuffnell/file

It's a different document, but doesn't appear to be missing pages.

On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 3:15:31 PM UTC-5, han...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> Actually, a 500 set has other components that could be made at
> various times.  These include the base and transmitter capsule,
> both have the date stamped on them.

True. The best way to tell is to look on the bottom of the baseplate (easy for a desk set, harder for a wall phone). It is possible that the original date was painted over (along with rest of the baseplate) when the phone was remanufactured. Remanufactured phones will have the date code preceded by an "R" and (if I'm remembering right) will always be in that orange-red ink WeCo sometimes used. If the phone was remanufactured, look inside for the date code on the "network" (the big potted part with all of the screw terminals / wires).

The Bell System was often displayed great innovation, as they used to offer an incentive (a percentage of the 1st year's savings, IIRC - I'd love to be the person who invented the 66 block!). They came up with a way to melt and re-flow the surface of phone housings instead of scrapping them during remanufacturing. They also came up with an ultra-flexible plastic silver spray paint for re-painting the cords on key sets (the 6-button phones like the 565HK), since that cord was a giant 25-pair monster. If you scraped off the paint, you'd often find a black cord from the 50's.

To comment on some other things up-thread...

In the US, classic analog voice was 56Kbit/sec when digitized and transported. T carrier (T1) had 24 channels of 64Kbit/sec, but with the primitive electronics of the time 1 out of every 8 bits was "robbed" for things like hookswitch status signalling for an effective rate of 56Kbit/sec.

There are parts of the US where traditional analog POTS remains pretty much the only viable option for phone service. Consider Tecopa, CA which has (as of the 2010 Census) 92 households. The "local" school district is 6,000 square miles (bigger than the entire state of CT) for 60 students. There is no cell service unless you want to climb up a mountain, and even then you'll only get a weak signal. There is a single Internet provider (lv.net) which has 2 microwave stations "nearby". If you want internet, you buy equipment for a point-to-point microwave link to one of those stations which then backhauls your connection over a bunch of microwave links back to Vegas. It actually works quite well, but is nowhere near cost-competitive with the AT&T landline service. Unfortunately, that AT&T service is subject to lots of outages (parts of it are still lead-jacket cotton-insulated cable) which can take days or even weeks to repair.

Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> wrote:
>> 
>> Where are telephone sanitizers when you need them?

>They went on the B Ark.

O Bother It! We are the descendants of the B ark and
we only survived because the telephone sanatizers were
on the B ark. The A ark perished.
>-- 
-- 
  O wad some Power the giftie gie us
  To see oursels as ithers see us!
  It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
  An' foolish notion: