Northern Telecom / Nortel Pay Telephones

Here are some example pictures and technical descriptions of Northern Telecom (Nortel) Pay phones that are still found in the USA and Canada.

Webmaster's note: I do not own these pay phones. Please DO NOT ask where to buy pay phones. (Hint: try eBay!)

Northern Telecom Centurion

This is an example of a Northern Electric/Northern Telecom (now called Nortel Networks) Centurion pay phone. This pay phone was manufactured from the mid-1970's through the mid-1980's.

These pay phones were used quite extensively in the USA by United Telephone/Carolina Telephone & Telegraph/Central Telephone (now collectively known as Sprint Local). Other independents used these as well. These were also used quite extensively in Canada.

Both rotary and Touch-Tone varieties have known to exist.

These phones have interchangeable plastic covers and can be found commonly in the following colors - brown (most common, shown here), black, green and blue.

Older versions of the phone have a "Northern Electric" symbol on the coin return hopper door. Newer ones have a "Northern Telecom" symbol.

Versions made for the USA were made to be compatible with the Western Electric/AT&T dual-frequency tone ACTS system. Canadian versions originally used single tones but may have been later modified to use the dual-tone system.

Canadian versions can take either American or Canadian coins. I do not know if the USA version could take Canadian coins or not.

Most Centurions that are still in use in Sprint Local areas have been converted to COCOTs.

Nortel Millennium Pay Phones

The Nortel Millennium (later sold to QuorTech), though sometimes are used by Telephone Companies, is more like a COCOT and is covered on the COCOT page.