A Western Electric 500 telephone issue....

[AdamAnt316]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Touch Tone services have never supported pulse dial phones.

In the old days, it was the opposite. If you had basic service in the Bell System, DTMF tones wouldn't be accepted unless you paid extra for touch-tone service. This continued well into the '90s, at the least; one of our neighbors never bothered to upgrade past a 'basic black' WE 500 phone, and when I tried to use my Casio speed-dialer wristwatch with it, the touch-tones were completely ignored.

In terms of the modern era, there is still some support for pulse dialing with today's phone systems. We have Verizon FiOS service, and my various rotary dial phones dial out just fine with it. However, not all of them work correctly; whatever pulse-to-tone converter our network interface box uses is very strict about the rate of pulses, with a too-slow (or too-fast) rotary dial having most of its input disregarded. However, it does have its advantages; if I end up calling a number with a phone tree, when it asks to "Press 1 for English", I can dial a 1 with the rotary dial, and have it accepted.
-Adam