3 ms·
> Although only ten buttons are needed for today's telephone needs, thw two "extra" buttons prepare these sets for future communications services. I wonder wha
by rbinv 12y ago
> Although only ten buttons are needed for today's telephone needs, thw two "extra" buttons prepare these sets for future communications services.
I wonder what they had in mind? Have there been any noteworthy uses except for stuff like signaling the end of an input?
- Aloha 12y agoThe first touch tone phones only had 10 buttons, FWIW.
- Sanddancer 12y agoIn the US, the * key was used for a lot of shortcodes with various add-on phone services -- turning on/off caller id visibility, disabling call waiting for one call, calling the number that dialled you back, etc. However, in general, the keys were designed to be used to access computer services where you needed various delimiters. Of note here is that the DTMF system was originally designed with a fourth row of keys, A-D. These were supposed to be used for general access of menus instead of the now traditional 1-9, but they only ever really got used for the military Autovon [1] network for setting priorities. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon
- Aloha 12y agoNot was, is, the vertical service codes still work - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_service_code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_service_code