Rotary Phones Nostalgia

Users share memories and anecdotes about rotary phones, party lines, pulse dialing, and old landline telephony behaviors, often contrasting them with modern phone systems.

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4,355
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#9231
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
3
2008
17
2009
28
2010
64
2011
81
2012
86
2013
163
2014
121
2015
143
2016
210
2017
232
2018
184
2019
296
2020
381
2021
533
2022
539
2023
428
2024
457
2025
360
2026
29

Keywords

PSTN DMS10 US VOIP POTS CLI HomePod DTMF DECT McDonalds phone phones dial telephone old 90s line remember fibre mid 90s

Sample Comments

transcriptase Aug 29, 2025 View on HN

Wait until you find out what people used to do with phone lines!

DanBC Sep 10, 2013 View on HN

I've used a rotary phone, on a party line. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_(telephony))

Handytinge Apr 11, 2022 View on HN

Real phones did work like that in +61 20-30 years ago :).

pmlnr Feb 21, 2018 View on HN

He was talking about landline numbers.

jhugo Jun 19, 2022 View on HN

The conversation didn't prompt you to look up any rotary-phone-related content?

NDizzle Nov 17, 2015 View on HN

Also they were talking about rotary phones!

DonHopkins Apr 9, 2021 View on HN

Thanks for the 411 on how the phone system worked back in the day!

ghostly_s Apr 4, 2022 View on HN

Citation needed. I don't recall any land line phone I've used behaving in this way.

mlvljr Aug 7, 2017 View on HN

An old wired phone does it for ya, in fact :)

tigershark Oct 21, 2017 View on HN

Also the rotary phones that the parent comment mentioned don't have it, so?