corded phone

The oldest of all phones, dominant in everyday use at least until the early 1990s. Uses cords to maintain electricity. Most often has a rotary dial, although these were gradually superseded by push button systems from the 1980s onward.

The earliest corded phones had no integrated dialing system at all; either the connection was between two devices only, or a manual telephone exchange was needed.

The corded phone has generally been superseded by cordless phones and cellphones, but are still common in some fields. Public phones such as payphones and emergency phones are corded either to discourage someone walking off with the receiver or because the time between uses would be far between. Office/business phones are also commonly wired, due to considerations such of potential radio interference in an office environment where there may be many phones and wireless devices in close proximity and in consideration of corporate security.

This tag implicates phone (learn more).