The Vista 350 telephone and the birth of SaaS
Warning: this is a retrospective post… don’t worry, it concludes with a happy “today” message for the Software as a Service industry (SaaS).
In 1988, the top song was George Michael’s Faith… or Tracy Chapman’s Fast Cars – depending on the chart. Not a bad soundtrack to this post. I had just joined Northern Telecom’s lab – Bell Northern Research.
One of my first projects was to design a phone (correction: “consumer appliance”) that would enable third party interactive services to be delivered via ordinary analog phone lines. This project was sponsored by the Bank of Boston and BellSouth. We hacked up a data protocol, built a few hundred phones and conducted trials for the “home banking machine” in Nashville. That was 1992. The phone was code-named SESAME … as in “open Sesame”…a new portal to service. By the way, the awful acronym stood for Subscriber Enhanced Services Access Made Easy. The phone is pictured here – a three line bit-mapped display with softkeys.
The results were “OK”… but the phone looked just like a phone. There was no way the device could support a $250 price tag. 
Back to the drawing board. The next year we created the concept for the Vista 350… the market research was definitive: no one was going to pay $350 for a “phone”. So Northern (soon to be Nortel) compromised. We got to build the Vista 350 (with it’s large display and softkey interface.) We also build the Vista 250 – with a tiny display and hardkey interface. The 250 was going to sell for $250. Both the 350 and 250 operated on the same firmware. Common sense would dictate that the cheaper version of the product would prevail. So wrong.
The 250 didn’t see the light of day! The 350 took off beyond everyone’s expectations – eventually selling a couple million units. The analog protocol developed to deliver data over ordinary telephone lines ended up as a Bellcore standard (TR-1373).
But did people buy it for access to those third-party services that was the genesis of the project? No. The Vista 350 (branded in Canada), PowerTouch 350 (branded elsewhere) was just a great phone. It didn’t need a user guide. The softkey user interface was contextual… everything made sense. The industrial design was out of this world at the time. It’s still influences industrial design for current VoIP phones. Its design was even honoured with its own Canada Post stamp… The industrial designer was friend and colleague Cliff Read. We share a couple of US patents on that one.
The 350 began its retail life in 1995. At the same time, the web was catching fire – growing exponentially every week. Companies saw the web as the future delivery pipe for their services.
Despite it’s huge success as a product, the 350 failed as a services appliance. Despite its failure, we learned it was possible to open up the “fortress telco” to deliver third party services. We also learned that the quality of the user experience has a huge impact on margins and customer loyalty.
Ok – so the 350 wasn’t really the “birth” of SaaS. It was just another step towards Service Oriented Networks.
So, fire up your old “Minitel” and comment this post!
Hey Mitch,
Greetings from a fellow former Northern Telecom/Nortel/Nortel Networks colleague! I was in Sales in Toronto during the 1990s, both CO and Enterprise, and left the company with a handful of mementos (T-shirts with ALL the logo variations), including: a Real Sesame Phone! AND, a couple of Vista 350s. Not to mention my lovely talking M9516 and an M9517 with USB connectivity. At least one of my 350’s has the printer port. (What’s the protocol, anyway, could it be made to work??)
If anyone reading this would like to purchase the 350s, let me know. They are great phones, but they’re just gathering dust in my new apartment.
Stuart
Toronto
Good to hear from you Stuart. Hoarding Vista 350s huh? LOL
As I recall… The port is an old-fashioned RS-232 serial interface. I don’t believe Nortel ever published the printer jack’s specification. Pressing the print key while in the Caller’s list should show the list flipping by.
I will have to plug one in and give it a try! Maybe Hyperterminal will take the output — gosh, my desktop PC even has a serial port
Best wishes to you,
Stuart
Let us know how it works out!!
I have a Vista 350 and sympatico from Bell. The dsl filters I need to use have caused the phone to stop displaying incoming calls. As well the date and time change constantly. Has this happened to other folks?
Yes – the Bell filters can cause caller ID not to work. It’s especially disruptive if you subscribe to call waiting ID. Not all caller ID phones will be affected though… The Telco-provided filters tend to be the cheap ones – you can try high-end ones – which can cost up to $20…
Wow, I just plugged in my first 350. A buddy gave it to me, he swears by them.
And I am hooked already.
Thanks for the manual link that helps out on a lot of things.
STUART!! , How much do you want for your 350’s? I am in Calgary.
And indeed Congratulations to you Mitch on this site and the phone. Both Very much appreciated.
Hey Brad – welcome to the Vista 350 club! The original Vistas were manufactured in Calgary – at Nortel’s plant in the North East (?) – it was near the airport anyhow… and close to a large mall…
I was there when the first ones were “rolling” off the assembly line – pretty awesome to see electronics actually manufactured in Canada!
Hi Brad,
I’d let them go for $75 each, plus shipping. (Note: I’ll have to plug ‘em in and verify that the displays are still OK, but I’d let you know about that and adjust the price if there’s any problem.) You can send an e-mail direct to stu (dawt) rogers (at) sympatico (dawt) cee-ay.
And Mitch, I remember that plant — had a tour in my early days to see the Norstar sets being made. Great technology — wave soldering, and the final package weight check to make sure all the parts were in the box!
Stuart
Sometime before 2003, I bought the 350 phone -black- and I loved it, but I spilled coffee into it and it stopped operating. I called and to send it to Canada for repair was going to cost almost as much as I purchased it for so I put it under the cabinet. Today about 7-10 years later, I took it out and plugged it in and voila! it working–that is as a regular phone also with the jack not plugged in, if I plug in the jack I get a little sound and after a very short period, a busy signal–(I had plugged in an even older answering machine and maybe that accounted for the sound and busy signal). The display part of the 350 is blank–I think I saw a light at first. However I have called and had people give me a call to make sure we could contact each other and we can. I do have Caller ID and call Waiting through the phone company. What do you think ? Also, I can’t remember anything about how to operate it? Is there anyway I can get an operational manual? Can you email me info?
The keys are sealed with a plastic membrane – if fact the design had to pass what Nortel used to call “the coke test” – spilling coca-cola on the keypad… The liquid probably dried up over the years. There’s no reason the phone shouldn’t work toady – make sure you have its correct power supply.
A user’s guide can be seen here…
http://nsegainkc1.aliant.net/knowledge/docs/Repair/PhManuals/Vista350.pdf
Do you have a Users Manuel for the U S West
Model 350
I purchased a Nortel PowerTouch 350 when it was new. (Guessing around early 1990’s). I have the users manual and USWest Home Receptionish Quick Reference Guide. This has been a GREAT telephone, however I’ve decided to disconnect my land line and use the cell phone only. Does anyone have an interest in purchasing the telephone? I look forward to hearing from you.
I wish I could RESET my Vista 350 to work on Verizon,
the Services setting says” Future/Futur” and when I call Verizon’s ADSI phone number it says my phone is locked..
Help
how do i check my voicemail ?
Wow!! I can’t believe all the people who still also use their Vista 350’s!! I love mine, and my hubby just doesn’t get it. I got mine through Bell (in Ontario) many years ago when it first came out.
It was working fine, until a few months ago when we moved it from one room to another. Like another poster, my phone suddenly stopped showing the caller id for incoming calls (ir just shows unknown name/number) – EXCEPT if I am on the phone. The other thing I now have trouble with, is when the message waiting light decides to flash, it will not clear after I pickup the calls. I have to manually clear it through the options.
I do have sympatico and use the filters, but the configuration is the same as before I moved it, just in a different room (one in which it used to be hooked up and worked in).
Did anyone else ever have this problem and figure out how to fix it? I suppose I could try opening it up and removing the battery, but I’d hate to lose all my settings and my directory. Thanks for the great phone and blog!!
Tina
Thanks Tina,
I guess the first thing to try is moving it back to its original jack to see if the line / filter is the issue. It does sound like a data problem – so my bet is on a less than perfect filter (Bell gives out very cheap ones – some are not very reliable).
Thanks for your reply Mitch.
It was hooked up in this room (my office) for quite some time. We only moved it temporarily to another room while my office was being painted. Same filter…
After it did not work in my office, I did try putting it back in it’s temporary spot and no change.
Strange thing…. I had a missed call today and the call display showed it. Very intermittent.
Anyway, I have probably been using that same filter now at least 6 years without a problem. Are they known to suddenly stop working properly?
Thanks again,
Tina
I am moving into a condo with the Vista 350 phone (second photo up top here) still there. How do I change the “CONTACTS” I do no have a manual, so I need to delete old numbers and add new numbers.
Thanks
PS PAT,,,, if you are there, I would like to know where I could get the MANUAL.
I have a power 390 screen phone and I dont know how to download the features on the screen
Hi there Mitch,
Is there anyway, via a secret code or something, to be able to make the date show up as day month year? In other words, instead of Nov 7 it would read 7 Nov?
We have a Nortel BCM in the office and they’re all set up with d/m. I hope it’s not a firmware thing which can’t be changed easily??
Thanks heaps!
Sorry – that’s firmware, although running the telco’s ADSI script can overwrite that with any format…
I have a pair of these phones. When Telus recently switched B.C. area code 250 to 10 digit dialing, my “hot” dial feature for local calls no longer worked. The phone would dial these numbers back as seven digit numbers, which gets you the Telus hag nag.
After finding this forum, I went through the options menu, and discovered that by removing 250 from the area code list, the phone can be made to dial these numbers as 10-digit local calls.
On one of my phones the LCD display is badly degraded, but the other phone is as good as new.
My only complaint is that I wish these had been 2 line phones by default. I used them in an office for a while, and it was annoying that there was no second line. There was an upgraded version which supported 2 lines, but I think it boosted the price from $200 to $350 at the Telus store back in the late nineties.
That kind of price structure was practically begging the internet to succeed before ADSI was fully deployed. I don’t entirely get the comment that no one expected the internet to succeed so quickly. After 10 minutes in the Telus store, I was convinced the internet was a done deal. Couldn’t cut my strings to the Telco bean counters fast enough.
These days you can get a cheap wired handset for $10. It will probably have a hollow plastic handset arm and worse audio quality than a cell phone. The audio quality people tolerate in their phones amazes me. Proof positive the human race prefers talking over listening.
It was kind of cool to read the posts in this forum. Always wondered about that useless printer port. Now I know.
Thanks for writing Allan! The original 350s were modular – meaning you could rip out the module and replace it with different functionality. We had designed a multi-line one, and an integrated voice mail module… There was even a small business module. Sadly, Nortel wanted out of consumer products and the succes of the 350 allowed it to sell the line to Aastra.
Mitch,
Kudos on moderating this forum for two+ years. With luck, it will still be helping happy Vista 350 users long after NT ceases to exist.
I still have the nifty dual-tone white+gray 350 as pictured at the top of this thread. As I recall, it was intended for kitchens (and environments bathed in north light). Must be a collector’s item. I also have a plain old gray 350, and a 390, just to round out the collection. My house is equipped with a set of 5 multi-line Venture phones. The Venture shares many of the features and UI elegance found in the 350, and has an even better speakerphone than the 350.
Wasn’t there a 310 (or 320?) module? No ADSI, a few speed-dial keys.
Aficionados of the 350 who are looking for a similar multi-line phone (with optional answering machine) should look at the Venture. They can still be found on eBay.
Welcome Dave!
For those of you following this thread, Dave was the Technical guru behind many of Nortel’s “edge” initiatives!
Venture was a fantastic idea that was born out of a partnership with Motorola. The idea was that a small business could buy a venture telephone – plug it in – and it would automatically find other Venture sets in the small bus, set up intercom lines, shared lines and shared directories….
I could go on… Perhaps we put too much innovation into that one!
Just found this thread and really like my USWest 350. It’s a great phone and still works like a charm, but I’m with a different provider now. It has a Message softkey, which dials a voice mail retrieval access number. Does anyone know if there’s a way to change the number that it dials?
Thanks!
I had a Power Touch 350 for years and was very pleased. I moved last year to a new area and the only phone servie availabe is provided by Time-Warner cable. Please advise which Power Touch works best with my digital broadband provider.
Thanks a million.
P.S. My Power Touch 350 got lost when moving as one of the movers was really interested and kept asking questions.
Hi Mitch,
Oh the memories. I laid out the ciruit boards for many of these sets and
remember spending a few nights while watching tv plugging in and out the first modules to see how many times before fail. It was one of the first commercial user plug in units for BNR. No one wanted to have to do the Nintendo blow on connector instructions. I have a couple of 225’s, a 250 and a 350. My preference though is still the 250 because of the ease of use of the speed dials. My 350 display did have a couple of line problems but I was able to press the ribbon cable onto the PCB and it seems ok. I have an old video that shows the paper roll printer on the table. I think the idea was that you ordered pizza on line and then printed out your order and bill? I also remember having a number to dial into to get automatic advertising and other features from BELL. My next favourite number though was the one that turned the feature off. Cheers!
Hey Jeff – yeah there were many “firsts” and lots of innovation in that product!
I probably had the only working printer – a cute little Seiko unit…
does anyone know how to turn message light on or off for vista 200 from Bell Canada thanks rodney
Hi Rodney,
I am not sure exactly what feature you want to turn it on or off for but here is a manual that looks a lot like my old hard copy. This was one of my favourite sets that I worked on, it was also one of the few sets we received new phones off the production line for and it came with an ink screened faceplate with acknowledgement for being part of the team.
http://www.quadro.net/Vista200%20manual.pdf
cheers,..jeff..
Hi all, I just found this vista-350- site. I have had the vista-350 for a while now and found it fine for day to day use. Recently I discovered that it has a place for line 1 and Line 2 in the back. I would love to use both lines, but the corresponding software buttons are not apparent, and also there seems to be none installed.
When I connect two lines, there is no way to distinguish which line is to be used, and when I dial, the number is dialed on both lines.
I probably need to load some aditional software into this phone? How would I go about this? I like the idea of the independent stand-alone phone without having to be hooked up to a computer.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks for any suggestions
-Brian
comment modifier l’affichage d’un Nortel Vista 390.
Merci
I have Vista 350 and I like the phone feature very much. I am having a problem and I am not sure if it the phone or the service provider (Bell). When I have received a call and a message is left the only way I know is by checking the phone for recent call or lifting the receiver for the change in dial tone. Is it possible to program the phone to have the light come on when to identify that I have a message waiting? od do I have to contact Bell? This sure would make it a lot easier.
Any help would be appreciated
George
Bonjour à tous,
j’ai un vista 350 et mon écran est brisé.En fait, il y a des lignes noires. Est-il possible d’acheter des pièces individuellement ou je dois me diriger vers le nouvelle appareil 390?
Merci
Kim
Québec
Desole Kim – le 350 peut pas etre repare… Tu peut souvent trouver des 350 usage sur eBay pour a peut pres $20.
Trying to replace the power supply, which is buzzing loudly on my Vista 350 (Nortel)…the display is rather dim as well, which I figure might be a function of the failing power supply problems…
Voltage and milliamps that would work with replacement power supplies?
Thanks! (what a great phone…still at least LOOKS good after 14 years!)
Most Nortel transformers are AC not DC… The 350 is also a bit of a power hog – I believe it needs 500 ma… This makes them hard to find. although other readers have found replacement power supplies online.
I no longer have the manual for my Vista 350 and need to know:
1. what buttons to push to increase number of rings before call answer kicks in.
2. visual call waiting no longer works. Is this fixable?
3. Where could a get a manual?
I am still with Bell and this is my original phone.
Thanks,
Trudy
Visual Call Waiting and Voice Mail are network features. You’d have to call Bell to find out what’s up.
Hello all.
I have a BellSouth View Phone (AKA Vista-350) that needs a new support – base (I broke one of the two tabs off of the base, and the phone no longer stand up on it’s own).
Also, can you tell me where the microphone is located, and if it is replaceable? While in the speakerphone mode, my party doesn’t hear my side of the conversation very well.
Thanks!
HELP, I am a senior and just purchest a Nortel 350 and can`t turn on the ringer…Please help…Thank you very much
Hi Victor,
With the phone on-hook, just tap the volume bar (on the righthand side) – that will raise the volume on the ringer!
cheers
Mitch
wonder if anyone knows how to connect head phones to Nortel 350
there is no headphone plug to be found.
lk
There are no stereo headphone inputs on the phone, but you can purchase telephone headsets that can plug into an RJ11 telephone jack.
http://www.evaluezone.com/chhe.html
Hi,
Just dropped by to see if there had been an answer posted to my question (Post #33 Dec.23th,2008) No answer – It seems that it was bypassed for one reason or another.
I’ll ask again,in shorter form. Is there (1) any way of emulating the Vista 350 programming on a PC,(2) could I (re-)program the vista 350?
Thank you for any response to this question
Hey Brian – it depends what you want to re-program. The firmware of the phone is locked in, but the 350 supports ADSI (Analog Display Services Interface) – this is the means by which services are created and displayed. This is based on BellCore’ standard TR-1273. Here’s an Ameritech document describing the protocol:
http://www.att.com/Large-Files/RIMS/Network_Interface_Specifications/AM-TR-NIS-000118.pdf
I have a 350 vista which In got in 1997. I am having problems with the receiver (or handset) have bought new cords but think it is in the reciever. It keeps clicking and cutting people off unless you hold the cord into the reciever so it doesn’t move. Anyone have this problem and any ideas???
Hi Fred – it’s a standard connector – you should be able to plug a receiver from another phone to see if that’s the problem. Also – check your speakerphone – if that’s also garbled, then it’s not the handset!