Old NITEL phones resurrect in Germany with Retro telephone new arrivals

Are the old times back?

By Prince Osuagwu


Remember the early days in Nigeria, when communication through telephones would only end you up in the hands of NITEL, the nation's national telecommunications carrier? And, after a long queue, you also have to contend with a routine dialing which comes in form of winding the table phone with a round key pad housing the numbers? How time flies. Back in the 70s and 80s, this was the case but today technology has made everything easy. The key pads either on the mobile or table phones are simple and visible and allows for easy dialing.
But for complaints of poor quality of service among telecom operators in recent times, nobody spends ages waiting for dialing tones anymore. That is the beauty of development. But the dynamism of technological advancement can sometimes be crazy or at best a little funny. While research favours advancements it sometimes finds relevance in reverting to the old.
Perhaps, that is what happened when French company, Sagemcom harks back to an earlier age of domestic communications with the "Sixty" cordless phone.
With the Sixty, Sagemcom delivers a new twist on the 1960's Bakelite telephone by transforming the stocky rotary form into a folded, slimline design and adding a digital time fascia and capacitive touchscreen. The non-retro functionality includes hands-free calling, caller ID, 150 name and number phone book, phone conferencing, multiple languages, and an integrated digital answer machine.
The drilling bell tone of old, comes back in more modern polyphonic ringtones, even though there is still the original "ring ring" for those who want to retain some of the old-skool feel. There's also rotating lights and sound effects during dialing.
One 1960s element that doesn't make a comeback is the curly phone cord, instead there's a wireless handset with a 10 hour battery life. The Sagecom Sixty is estimated to cost about US$167.