1983 Northern Telecom Commodore Phone

> Elsewhere in the world, phones were modular. Handsets connected to their bases via small RJ-9 jacks, allowing devices like the VICModem to intercept the line between the handset and the base. Easy. But not in Canada.

I would beg to differ. Maybe in some places in the world, but definitely not "everywhere else but in Canada". That's why the acoustic coupler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_coupler) was invented: a device where you placed your phone's handset, so you could connect your computer to it without having to physically tamper with the phone company's sacred device.

Telco regulations were also why modems used an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_coupler instead of being directly connected.

As an aside, the em-dash density of this article is one of the highest I've ever seen.

Around the same time, I purchased a Novation D-CAT which worked the same way as the one described (plugging in between the phone base and the handset). It was my first modem, and I primarily used it with my Lear Siegler ADM1A terminal (an upper case only terminal made entirely from discrete logic, and no internal CPU).

The late 70's and early 80's was an era of rapid evolution in modem technology. Within a year or two I had purchased a Hayes Smartmodem 1200, and had that connected to one of my CP/M computers.

I purchased several other modems over the years from US Robotics and Hayes. I think I purchased my last one in 1996, which was the year I got ISDN (2BRI).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novation_CAT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lear_Siegler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_Microcomputer_Products

Commodore made all kinds of wacky stuff back in the day before they concentrated entirely on computers and peripherals. I have a Commodore AM radio and a couple of Commodore wristwatches, chickenhead logos and all, not to mention the calculators and typewriters which were their original bread and butter.

1. If Commodore could simply design and sell a piece of hardware that connects to the phone line, why couldn't the modem connect directly to the phone line?

2. Wouldn't the adapter be illegal under the same regulation? The phone remains physically connected to the network (there is a cable running to it), yet when the switch is flipped that phone is no longer functional!

3. Why did Commodore even need to ship a phone, rather than just the adapter?

Squinting a bit I can see that perhaps there was some contracts behind these scenes between these two companies that let Commodore bend the rules as long as they were paying the bribe of buying a new phone, but it isn't explained at all.

That was a brilliant move by the telecom company to sell a huge batch of useless extra phones to poor suckers Commodore.

They are useless because they're identical to the customer's own phone except for the fact they say Commodore.

We had similar idiotic regulations in Holland. Most people rented their phone though they did have a plug (albeit a special one we called the pigs nose).

But in the 80s nobody gave a crap anymore and we just connected whatever we wanted. Aftermarket and technically illegal phones were sold everywhere.

33 years later, Commodore releases a modern phone: The Commodore Callback Flip-Phone https://commodore.net/callback/

Only vaguely-related, but looking at the bilingual text on the Vicmodem box, what happened when Commodore sold their Pet computer in Quebec?

Now, that’s a Commodore phone I can get behind.

This website is so nerdy and so cool!