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Nortel payphones

series of payphone models

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ7053518 ↗
Source-derived summary

Northern Telecom (from 1998 known as Nortel) manufactured several different payphone models. They were most commonly used in Canada and the United States. Nortel has manufactured several types in Canada.

Early payphones

N213H-3

N233H

Series 200/ QSD-3A

Northern Electric, Nortel's previous name made chrome payphones in the 1950s. The same phone was also made by Western Electric.

Centurion

Nortel Centurion were made in the 1970s–1980s and used coins only. They came in black, brown, blue, or green cases. Initial units used a rotary dial system and later units were touch tone key pad. Coin slot accepted denominations of 5, 10 and 25 cents. Centurions had a coin return button.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Nortel payphones” is series of payphone models. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Nortel, payphones and series, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1998—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Nortel, payphones and series is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “series of payphone models” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7053518. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1998.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Nortel payphones”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nortel payphones primary sources, Nortel payphones archive and Nortel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nortel payphones” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.