Can rotary dial phone with metalic ringer be used on Vonage

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2005 Posts: 3

I have been asked the question can an older rotary dial phone with metalic ringers be used with a Vonage adaptor. I don't have the answer.

I suspect the adaptor would not support the load of the metalic ringer and not sure if software would detect dial pulse.

Posts: 182 · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:14 pm Post subject:

You can't dial with a rotary dial phone on Vonage. I tried. Smile

As for the ringer, I doubt it. Phones have ringer equivalency numbers. This is a measure of how much current they need on the phone line to physically ring the phones. A POTS line can have a total of 100 REN units I believe. An ATA like Vonage uses can have a total of about 5, if memory serves. A mechanically-rung bell phone has an REN of about 20.

Electronic ringers are your only option, really, unless you can find a mechanical bell that uses electricity from batteries or AC current to actually ring. I have never heard of such a phone ringer because there was no need pre-VoIP and hardly anyone uses such phones post-VoIP.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2005 Posts: 3

Since posting my question I have gotten a Rotary Dial Phone and tried it out. IT WORKS. I am using an RPT-300 and I am not sure of the make of phone but the bells ring the dial, dials so my friend is happy. I hope when she orders her unit it will work or I may lose mine.

Happy new year

Posts: 182 · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject:

It must depend on the ATA. I have the non-wireless Linksys router (RTP2?). Which do you have?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2005 Posts: 3

My adaptor is the RPT300. My friend just received her unit today and it is working as well. It is also the RPT300 Very Happy

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 15

PhotoJim wrote:

As for the ringer, I doubt it. Phones have ringer equivalency numbers. This is a measure of how much current they need on the phone line to physically ring the phones. A POTS line can have a total of 100 REN units I believe. An ATA like Vonage uses can have a total of about 5, if memory serves. A mechanically-rung bell phone has an REN of about 20.

Actually, you're mistaken. A POTS line handles 5 REN. A classic WE bell ringer and other bell ringers are 1 REN. Vonage provisions the PAP2 to 5 REN, but you can call them up and tell them to change it to up to 8 REN.

Posts: 37 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 37

claudeo wrote:

Since posting my question I have gotten a Rotary Dial Phone and tried it out. IT WORKS. I am using an RPT-300 and I am not sure of the make of phone but the bells ring the dial, dials so my friend is happy. I hope when she orders her unit it will work or I may lose mine.

It also depends on the phone. A really low amount of the last rotary phones made by some companies are capable of tone dialing. It's done by adding electronic circuitry between the rotary dial, and the actual phoneline connection. It simply translates the pulse into the appropriate tones.

We had one like that up until 1991 (in Denmark). It had a coin switch on the bottom to switch it between pulse and tone. The Danish version of 911 haven't support pulse dialing since then, so there was no point in keeping it.

But why would you want to use the old dial phones in this day and age ? The sound quality ****, it takes forever to dial anything, and it's useless on all phonecomputer systems in service now. There IS a reason why they got discontinued after all... Dialing an international call on one of those is simply a beast of a procedure ... dialing from Denmark to USA/Canada is 15 digits...

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 2

Metalbunny,

Actually, you are incorrect. I collect old Western Electric rotary phones myself and I can honestly say that they sound better than ANY crappy modern electronic phone. Not only do they sound excellent, but they last forever. Any newer phone you buy today, you are lucky if it lasts longer than a year.

Ken

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 34

I currently have three Western Electric phones off my RT31P2 adapter. They all ring very nicely. I have other WE's on the Vonage but disconnected the ringer.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 08, 2006 Posts: 15

You could always pick up one of those DTMF tone generators radio shack used to sell...

Its a small handhelp device that you hold to the mouthpiece of the phone. You press the numbers and a speaker in the back plays the proper tone into the phone.

Heres one on Ebay...DTMF Tone Generator