A look back at the AT&T Merlin phone system from the ‘80s

This is kind of neat. I’ve always wondered where that iconic “business” phone ring used in a ton of movies and TV shows comes from and it turns out it was a real part of the AT&T Merlin phone system introduced in the ‘80s and heavily used throughout the ‘90s.

As you can imagine with the slow upgrade speed of some larger businesses, support for the AT&T Merlin system still exists and you can still buy handsets and desk sets today in a variety of configurations.

The Merlin system ringtone is so iconic that even newer phone systems unrelated to the original phone maker include it as a ringtone.