Voip Blog
Personalizing Your Telephony Experience
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Image via WikipediaBack in the early days of telephony, the phone company was the arbiter of what telephones you could hook up to the network. That meant only a few models of phones were available--in whatever color they wanted to sell it in. In the early part of the 20th century, the phones were black, like the model T.
This remained the state of affairs until the 1968 Carterfone ruling by the FCC. In short, it permitted any device to be connected to the public telephone network, so long as it did not interfere with it's operation. This single ruling opened up not just the market for telephones and telephony devices of all shapes, sizes, and colors, but opened up new uses of the conventional telephony network, e.g. modems that eventually evolved into high-speed data connectivity.
Back to telephony devices. There are a number of landline and mobile phones available from a variety of manufacturers. Landline phones tend to be, by their very nature, fixed in one location. The fact that you and your neighbor might have the exact same telephone handset is almost a non-issue.
Mobile phones, on the other hand, are a different story. It's not only possible for multiple people to have the same mobile phone, but there are circumstances where figuring out whose phone is who might be a problem. I actually attended an event where a number of people were carrying Nokia N95s around. Yes, there are four different models of the N95, but many of the phones looked alike!
One way you can differentiate your handset from someone else's is to change it's outer appearance somehow. My Nokia N95 actually has a strap from an old digital camera hanging off of it. It makes sense for me because I actually use the phone as my primary digital camera. If you have a different phone or want something different, you can go and buy cell phone accessories such as a new faceplate, keypad, or a "bling kit." Whatever it takes to make your phone look the way you want.
