Don to your point -
I'm not sure if our monthly phone bill still has a surcharge for touch tone service
Those were interesting days just before the breakup of Ma Bell. Remember that they had to know the "ringer equivalency" of the aftermarket phone you were allowed to use ? There was a fee for each phone added.
I think my parents even got a call or a notice that they had too many phones, based on a random check by C & P Telephone. They'd ring you up, measure current, and if it didn't match the records they tried to nail you.
We figured out that by staying on "dial" service, a Touch-Tone® phone still worked and we didn't have to pay extra. We were using "Bell System Property" (not for sale) phones that we had found around (not purchased).
Those were some strapping phones, well-built, with a real mechanical bell, and all manner of RF suppression.
I am starting to see stories about people "discovering" the phone company has taken away their copper pair and the power to run their phones when they switch to fiber optic. I was lucky to get onto this scam early -- and insisted that I have a "data only" fiber service where they'd leave the copper pair in place and running.
It occurred to me that a sub-plot with this wild buildout of FiOS is Verizon's desire to get out from the copper infrastructure. Once a house is switched over, you can no longer get basic copper service. I suppose it's a matter of time before they will insist that ours be switched over too since they won't support one house.
Some people have said Verizon already is converting some neighborhoods over to fiber optic, with a converter at a distribution point that still feeds copper lines. I wonder how they make good on power when the lights go out, or maybe they no longer have to give a szht past a few hours, just like their limited promise for fiber service during power outages.
The world runs on a gel cell (made in China and non-EPA compliant)