GPO 700 Series Phone Overview

Описание: This is a brief overview of the GPO 700 series phone. The phone that was manufactured for 3 decades.

All phones and wiring in the UK, except for in Hull, were owned and operated by the Post Office up until the 1980's. This meant that not only was the phone the property of the Post Office (usually called the GPO) but so was the wiring.

We found this phone in a loft where the owner had placed it in the 1980's against the day when the GPO would collect it again. So if anyone from BT who took over from the GPO wants it back -- please contact us.

To have a telephone installed cost £10 in 1966. This was increased to a whopping £20 in 1968. In 1966 there was a line rental of £14 per year. To get a phone you went to the post office and filled in a form. They then wrote back to you and told you if and when your phone could be installed.

Call charges then depended on when and how far you were dialling. Local calls cost 2d for 6 minutes in peak times and 2d for 12 minutes at evenings and weekends. Trunk calls on STD were charged at 1s for 3 minutes up to 35 miles and varied up to 4s for 3 minutes for the longest distances. By comparison a pint of beer was about 10p compared to about £3.00 today. So that by comparison line rental would be £520 a year instead of about £200 today.

The 700 series phones were introduced in 1959 and were available until the late 1970's. They replaced the 300 series phones.

They were often repaired. This video shows a 1966 model manufactured by GEC (under the name AEG).
This particular phone was chosen over the more modern trimphone --because the line rental was cheaper. The handset is a work of art. It is moulded in 2 pieces with hand and mouthpieces that undo. So it was easy to just slip a bug into the handset -- if you were a 60's private detective.

Inside this phone we see that it is a series 2 phone where the components are mounted onto a PCB.

Externally this is one of the 1st phones that went for an all number dial. Previously if you wanted to dial say Great Barr 1431 which was my family's number up to 1966 when we moved you dialled GRE 1431.

We replaced the wiring that hard wired the phone into the wall with a modern phone plug and it now works without modification on the 21st century phone network.

So here is the phone that you get if you ask an engineer to design a phone that will last forever. It was for the white hot technology age when phone calls were expensive and hard to make. So sometimes progress does happen.





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