The dialing output of a rotary is digital. Just a bit more sophisticated than the wall switches installed in my house in the 50s.
The dialing output of a touchtone was analog.
We used to be able to “dial” a rotary with a lock on the dial by carefully tapping the switch under the handset.
Yes, I've done that before just to prove it to myself.
I stick with what I posted. I was in the industry for 40 years, as a Staff Sergeant in the USAF and then with ITT, Sprint, MCI and retired after 31 years Verizon Business as a Senior Maintenance Technician and the last last ten years as Program and Project Manager. Rotary is analog and Touch Tone is the transition to digital.
Rotary vs. Modern Phones: A Contrast in Technology
Fast forward to today, and the contrast between rotary phones and modern smartphones couldn’t be starker. Where rotary phones were limited to making calls (and later, basic features like redial or hold), smartphones are mini-computers. They keep us connected not just through calls, but through text, email, social media, and a multitude of apps.
Smartphones also use digital technology as opposed to the analog system of rotary phones. This shift has allowed for clearer sound quality, faster connections, and the ability to send data alongside voice signals.
You are correct. As the term is commonly understood: “A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values.”
Sounds like the on/off signaling of pulse/rotary dialing to me.
Morse code is also a digital signal.