[gadders]

This reminds me of the early 80's in the UK. I think for 50p/minute or something you could dial a telephone number that was essentially a group chat. Some kids at my school did it from the school library which didn't make them very popular with the authorities.

[decanus]

Yeah a couple of friends told me it reminds them of those, I think they were called party lines!

[Siecje]

A party line was a home phone that was shared with your neighbours. If your neighbour was on the phone and you picked it up you would join their conversation. So you could pick up the phone and listen in.

You had your own ring so you would know when the phone was for you, but it would always ring. For example your ring could be two short and two long.

[quickthrower2]

Oh! Eight! Nine! One! Fifty! Fifty! Fifty!

[gadders]

Yes!

[quickthrower2]

I phoned this once when I found a phone box that had a bug that 20p turned into 5 quid on the lcd.

Man the chat line was crap it was like a voicemail on loop and super slow to keep you on the call for ages.

Much better was the tango doll which I also got via that phone but only 1 of the 3 came!