General Information

Serial #

NTOC82AB1131

Part Number

1

Total Parts

3

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Synthetic casing and parts/ Metal hardware and parts/ Rubber? feet

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

15.5 cm

Width

10.6 cm

Height

8.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Communications

Category

Telephony

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Northern Telecom

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

City

Mississauga

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Quebec

Period

1991 to present

Canada

An example of a device used by telephone subscribers to screen incoming calls before picking up the receiver and/or track the sources of calls received during their absence. In order for the call display device to be operable, subscribers had to pay for the telephone company's line identification service. At the time the Interlude model was introduced ca. 1991, call display was a new service offered by telephone companies. For example, Bell Canada began offering the service in Ottawa and Quebec City in June 19990 and in Montreal and Toronto in April 1991, Telephone manufacturers introduced large numbers of telephones with built-in call displays during the 1990s, making transitional devices like the Interlude unnecessary.

Function

A device which displays the caller's name and number for incoming telephone calls. It stores names, numbers, time and date of calls in memory for later review.

Technical

This is a simple display and storage device that is connected between a telephone set and a wall jack using a standard line cord. When an incoming call is detected (between the first and second rings), the LCD screen displays the caller's phone number and name, if these are available. It also stores the number, name, date and time of the five most recent calls on an internal memory chip. Call display devices were made possible by network management changes made by telephone companies in the 1980s. For the century of telephony, all signaling information (e.g. dial pulses, touch tone signals, ring and busy signals) was transmitted in the same frequency band as the audio signal itself. Instead of this 'in-band signaling', the common channel signaling (CCS) introduced in the 1980s separated the voice and data streams into separate channels,allowing the data to be handled by central computers rather then telephone switches. This greatly speeded up access to this data from anywhere in the network, and allowed, for example, the caller's name and number to be retrieved and transmitted so quickly that the called party could view them before picking up the receiver.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Black 'nt' logo and lettering reading 'northern/ telecom' on top panel/ Label on on underside read NT0C82AB1131/ RO1 9104'/ Black lettering on label reads in part 'nt' [logo] northern/ telecom/ MADE IN CANADA', with superimposed label reading in red and black Communications/ Canada/ 332 3722 A'

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Textured almond coloured casing with glossy almond coloured stand/ Glossy ivory coloured top panel/ Black feet

Decoration

Turquoise lines and fine black parallel lines framing display panel and across top panel