Hotel's rotary switchboard so retro it predates the concept of crashing
- Reference: 1771841712
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/23/bork_goes_retro_with_a/
- Source link:
So it is with this elderly hotel switchboard, spotted in Italy by an eagle-eyed Register reader.
[1]
An old telephone switchboard next to a fax machine and typewriter - click to enlarge
The device is mounted to the wall behind the reception desk, and is accompanied by a fax machine and an electric typewriter. The switchboard, with its rotary dial and chunky audio jacks, likely takes the crown of the most retro example of technology at any hotel in 2026, even if it is unlikely to have seen telephone action recently.
For those who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum), it required an operator to plug and unplug cables to connect extensions to incoming calls or configure outgoing calls. The system was all the rage in the mid-20th century, although it was later rendered obsolete - in most places - by modern hardware and software.
[2]Penguin-powered platform board keels over at Alpine station
[3]ʎɹǝʌoɔǝᴚ sʍopuᴉM ʇɐ sǝʇɐuᴉɯɹǝʇ snq sᴉɥ┴
[4]Summer in Australia means beers, beaches, and bork
[5]Help! Does anyone on the bus know Linux?
We'd probably avoid feeding power into this unit for fear of releasing the magic smoke. It also looks decidedly analog in what, these days, is a digital world.
While we won't disclose the location of this unit, another was spotted at the Hotel Villa Nelia, judging by [6]TripAdvisor imagery . However, some of the traveler reviews suggest it isn't only the telephone switchboard that carries a distinct whiff of retro about it (and not necessarily in a good way).
Although not strictly a bork (let's face it, this switchboard predates the vast majority of digital signage and distressed devices that normally feature in this column), the sorry-looking analog switchboard is a link to simpler, analog times — an era when wanting to be connected required a human to fiddle with cables and connectors, and when patience and planning were needed before placing that call.
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Today, anybody can be connected to anybody else. However, lurking behind the reception desk of a hotel in Italy, nestled next to an electric typewriter and a fax machine, is a reminder that it was not always so. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/02/17/retro_switchboard.jpg
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/15/swiss_railway_bork/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/13/bus_bork/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/06/supermarket_bork_australia/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/02/bus_linux/
[6] https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1183879-d4786600-Reviews-Hotel_Villa_Nelia-Miramare_Rimini_Province_of_Rimini_Emilia_Romagna.html#/media/4786600/?type=ALL_INCLUDING_RESTRICTED&albumid=101&category=101
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aZwzUs83fUqKMiMkGKOgDgAAA9Y&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)
Really know how to make a chap feel old !
When I was a student, the residential college in which I lived required each resident to man such a switchboard a couple of evenings per semester.
Outgoing calls (4 lines) were initiated using the same switchboard rotary dialer and patched to the requesting room.
I wonder how many recall how to cancel a misdialled digit ? Or the function of the A/B buttons on public telephone boxes ?
Although it is sobering to consider how resilient this technology was; often survivng intact, at least at the exchange level, fairly major natural disasters
Hotels are retro telephony treasure troves
Hotels tend to have very dated telephony requirements for a bunch of reasons. This is a combination of analog phone cables that are very difficult (and expensive) to replace, large analog PBX's being expensive, and local legislation often mandating that guests should always have a phone available to dial the emergency number.
While modern telephony platforms won't have as much trouble with 100's of phones, the expense of replacing all of those cables in an old building and all of those new phones is often too much to bear. So much so that we once came across an old comms room with hundreds of ATAs to convert SIP to analog phone signals.
Planning
patience and planning were needed before placing that call
You also had to be aware of the time of day - forget "evening and weekend calls" there were three tariffs - Premium (IIRC 09:00-13:00), Standard (13:00-17:00) and Cheap (outside those hours including weekends). I worked at one place where the FD would scrutinise the phone bill and request an explanation of any premium rate calls made which probably wasted more time and money than the call had cost. It wasn't helpful when we had to summon a hardware engineer and phoning after 13:00 meant next day rather than same day service.
Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades
I see a this area had a lot of smokers. It needs to be cleaned up a little. There's also a good chance that the internals also need to be cleaned up a little from all that smoke dirt.