pay phone story

Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

Swedish Payphone- Televerket Telefonautomat 605

The Televerket Telefonautomat 605 was a Swedish 10-öre coin telephone used during the mid-20th century. Produced to Televerket specifications, its maker remains uncertain. Its rugged green steel cabinet, exposed coin mechanism, Bakelite handset and rotary dial give it a strikingly functionalistic Scandinavian design, where durability and operation clearly took precedence over decoration.

Name	Televerket Telefonautomat 605 Samatalsautomat 10 ore myntapparat
Date	c. 1960s–1970s
Manufacturer	probably L.M. Ericsson for Televerket

Televerket Telefonautomat 605 – Sweden

The Telefonautomat 605 was a Swedish coin-operated public telephone used by the state telecommunications authority Televerket during the mid-20th century. It belongs to Televerket’s generation of single-coin “samtalsautomater”, designed specifically for the Swedish 10-öre coin and principally intended for local calls. Contemporary Swedish records confirm that these single-denomination machines operated alongside more sophisticated three-coin payphones accepting 10 öre, 25 öre and 1 krona.

The 605 is an exceptionally distinctive piece of Swedish industrial design. Its heavy hammer-finished green steel cabinet contains the telephone and coin mechanism, while the black Bakelite handset rests in a substantial metal cradle. Most striking is the exposed chrome-plated coin operating mechanism at the top, clearly marked with a red arrow showing the required movement. The front incorporates the rotary dial, coin-return control and a small label holder.

Televerket documentation specifically survives for the emptying, replacement and sealing of the coin box on Telefonautomat types 597 and 605, confirming the model designation and its official use.

By 1966 Televerket still had approximately 13,000 10-öre-only payphones in service, valued collectively at more than five million kronor. The Telefonautomat 605 therefore represents an important period when Sweden’s rapidly expanding automatic telephone network still relied on rugged, entirely mechanical coin-control equipment.