Neil Brown1d ago
Have you ever...
Used a telephone book
19.3%
Spoken to a (human) telephone operator
11.6%
Reversed charges on a call
7.4%
Made a call from pay phone / phone box
18.4%
Received a call on a pay phone / phone box
7.2%
Used a phone card
15.2%
Dialled from one exchange to another to route a call
2.6%
Used a rotary dial phone
18.2%
Poll ended at .
Show threadGraham Sutherland / Polynomial
@neil all but the phone card and exchange
Apr 4 at 4:26pmWeb
Show threadGraham Sutherland / Polynomial1d ago
@neil wait does the phone card one mean the type for payphones, or does it include cards used to top up PAYG mobile phones? cos I definitely used the latter.
Show threadNeil Brown1d ago
@gsuberland Ooh, good clarification. I was meaning in the context of a payphone here.
Show thread(hic/haec/hoc)1d ago
@neil @gsuberland the standard prepaid magnetic cards or the international cards with a secret number to input?
Show threadDubious Blur22h ago
@_hic_haec_hoc @neil @gsuberland I read it as the former (though I’ve used both)
Show threadChris Fox22h ago
@_hic_haec_hoc @neil @gsuberland What about those 'orrible green BT ones from the 80s, with 'invisible' index marks that were literally burnt off as you used up your credit, and which invariably stopped working prematurely, with no way of getting a refund?
Show threadEmily Vale, Gendermancer1d ago
@neil @gsuberland I used calling cards for long distance calls from home (in America) to my German girlfriend. 😁 (This wasn't pre-Internet, but I met her in person as an exchange student.)
Show threadDeborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦3h ago
@neil @gsuberland oh, I said "yes" meaning a card that gives you discounted long distance. Nothing electronic - just a code to dial.
Show threadNeil Brown2h ago
@deborahh @gsuberland That's fine too! All lovely telecoms nostalgia.
Show threadDavid Nash1d ago
@gsuberland @neil I’m not sure if there’s a UK vs elsewhere distinction here but: in the US a “phone card” often meant something kind of like a phone company-account specific access card. It was also called a “calling card”. You’d dial a number (with an extra code/digit string to enable “calling card” mode), wait for the phone to make a “ka-BONG” sound, then dial the phone card ID number, and your call would go through and be billed to the account associated with the card. My parents gave me the phone card number for their account when I was in college in the 1990s so I wouldn’t have to worry about phone charges calling them.
Show threadDavid Nash1d ago
@gsuberland @neil Being entrusted with the parents’ phone card in the 1990s naturally replaced the previous “emergency call home” system in the 1980s, which was reverse charges (“collect calls” here in the US).
Show threadAaron1d ago
@dpnash I answered "yes" to "phone card" because I remember my parents giving me a physical card with numbers on it, and teaching me how to do exactly this, before I ever saw a cell phone.

Seeing "ka-BONG" written out triggered a memory of that exact sound!

@gsuberland @neil
Show threadcontranym1d ago
@dpnash @gsuberland @neil i just used prepaid phone cards for long distance on a landline and then for a cell phone when i finally got one here in the us. this would have been in the early 00s, tho.