HISTORY:
I admit to having an affinity with telephone equipment of all kinds, the telecommunications industry is where my working career began many many moons ago!
Much of my vintage telephone "bits & pieces" have found new homes but I have just dug up another box of treasure in my storage units - yes, you guessed it, telephone "stuff"
This TELSTRA Touchfone Executive is actually not all that old, around 30 years ago it was a common place instrument.
WHY WOULD YOU WANT ONE?
You like older technology!
Convenience and has features that may suit an older person (nice easy to use push buttons, clear ringing and familiarity)
Sometimes, if you have an issue with your existing Internet telephone service, the nice ISP "support" person will say to you "now plug in a Telstra "standard" telephone, so they can undertake some tests. They can't dispute that your instrument is working when it's a good old TELSTRA telephone, unlike if you tell them "Oh, my telephone is a Chinga Loada Rubbish" phone from Asia.
This Touchfone Executive telephonet works fine with modern home installations and has been tested on our own telephone service ... all the details are below
TELSTRA - Landline Telephone (2 Wire)
Model: Touchfone Executive
FEATURES:
Australian born and bred! No Chinese stuff here!
Made at the large Alcatel manufacturing plant in Sydney
LCD Screen
Hands Free Loudspeaker Facility
NO external power required (uses 3x AA batteries)
Adjustable Hands Free volume (PLENTY of volume!)
Adjustable Incoming Call Ring "Pitch" and volume (this can be important for those who are hard of hearing and can only easily hear certain pitched sounds.
Vintage Technology that still looks fine in a modern home!
SUPPLIED ITEMS:
TELSTRA Touchfone Executive Landline Telephone
1x Line cable (VERY long, around 15 metres) with the "old" TELSTRA wall plug fitted
1x Line cable with a connector suitable for your Internet modem Telephone port
Of course you don't need to use both of these line cables, just offering the maximum in flexibility!
NOT SUPPLIED:
Telephone service - this is provided by your Internet Service Provider
Instruction manual ( long since gone but these are easy to use and understand and I am sure if you hunted around online enough, you will dig up a manual)
Batteries: you need 3x AA (normal size) batteries, Alkaline would be best. I will not supply them because Australia Post are touchy about me sending items with batteries, so I leave them out in all cases.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
CLEAN
Nothing is damaged or broken
LCD screen is clean and undamaged
Case is not scratched or cracked
Slight discolouration to the Biege colouring, a light greenish tinge in places - this was always the problem with Telstra phones when cleaned by the subscriber using household cleaners (Ajax, Windex etc) which over time react with the plastic. It is not unsightly but you can notice it.
Curly cord is not all deformed, basically it is in great shape and not overly stretched
I did notice that at some stage someone had left the batteries in the phone and light corrosion had occurred. I cleaned up the contact spring (just one affected) and it's all as good as gold!
Then I noticed another issue, a nuisance more than anything. The battery cover "tab" has actually broken off so lifting the cover off requires the use of something flat to help lift the cover free - I used a bread knife during my testing (then my wife complained) so I used a pair of small scissors instead. In either case, it is not a "tricky" job, just a nuisance.
TESTING:
Of course this is the part that matters to most people!
Yes, it is functioning great in every respect.
I used our TPG VOIP Telephone service (NBN Fibre network), plugged into the modem Telephone Port 1
NOTE: Of course you will not have any telephone service unless you have already organised this with your Internet provider.
Lifted the handset, dialtone is heard. Called a few numbers and made sure they could hear me and me them - all great.
Pushed the Hands Free button and this function performed properly as well.
On the underside of the case are various recessed switches so that you can adjust the ringer sound, volume, tone duration and even switch to decadic signalling ... I don't believe anyone in Australia is going to want that. Decadic is the precursor to tone dialling, a series of pulses were sent down the telephone line instead of tones. The number of pulses represented a number. Archaic signalling system and if you accidently change this switch, the phone will not be understood by ANY exchange in Australia most likely. I tried it on our TPG service and TPG just didn't know what to do with the pulses and nothing happened!
Next I received a number of incoming calls, making sure the ringer pitch change and ringer volume was working - all fine here too. Not those nice mechanical bells of days gone by but a pleasant enough electronic "sound" when ringing.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
I did notice one facility lacking and I did not investigate further into this ... if it is important to the new owner, you will need to investigate yourself!
Although our usual DECT handsfree telephones show the caller ID (meaning we have Caller ID enabled), the LCD screen on this telephone does NOT indicate the number of the incoming call. The LCD screen will show the number you are dialling of course but not the incoming caller ID.
I seem to remember (in the dim dark mists of time) that caller ID was feature you had to ask TELSTRA to enable although if the feature is already enabled with your current telephone service provider, I would have thought it would work. Gives me a headache thinking about it so this aspect is someone else's problem - if it is important anyway.
