Design Line Telephone - Post-divestiture Design Line

Post-divestiture Design Line

In 1985, AT&T Technologies redesigned its consumer telephone products to be cheaper to build and be more competitive in the marketplace by adding electronic ringers and redial. In 1986, they moved telephone production out of the United States. After this time several new Design Line series telephones were marketed and discontinued. One example of a "Design Line" phone was model 140, marketed in the mid 90s. The phone was similar in size to the 2554 wall phone, but had unique features:

• Round Buttons
• Round Receiver/microphone
• Switchhook similar in shape to a slice of pie
• Desk or Wall use

The phone also required a base-to-handset cord which had a large portion non-coiled, as the plug to the base was located on the bottom of the phone, instead of facing out on the side.

In 2000, Lucent Technologies spun off its consumer telephone division, resulting in the Design Line being redesigned. The basic design was retained, except that the handset was "squared" more, and an "AT&T" badge was placed on the outside of the handset. The phone also replaced the Traditional 100 series (the 2500 and 2554 telephones) for consumer use, as Lucent kept the phones because of their high demand for business use after spinning off its consumer division.