NPSTN → About

N·P·S·T·N, n. 1. Northern Pacific Switched Telecommunications Network 2. Novelty Public Switched Telephone Network 3. a historical recreation of the mid-20th century North American phone network.

NPSTN is the world's most authentic, feature-rich switched and simulated recreation of the mid-20th century North American phone network. NPSTN allows for seamless time-travel into the past — by telephone, that is! NPSTN connects old switching equipment together, but it's also much more than that. It's people connected to each other, and to the past. It's a unique experience, and it doesn't exist in any one place — it reaches out through every telephone set on the network to touch the lives of its members.

Core Values & Tenets

NPSTN is a network, but it's ultimately a network connecting people together. Several core values are central to everything comprising NPSTN:

What is NPSTN?

First of all, what is NPSTN not? It's not a way to make free phone calls from point A to point B. It's not a common carrier public telecom provider. That's what the PSTN is for. If you came here looking for a free way to call Timbuktu, you came to the wrong place.

NPSTN is a VoIP phone network that ties new and vintage telephone switching systems together, connecting telephone collectors, phreaks, and enthusiasts. NPSTN is a cutting edge network to facilitate yesterday's and tomorrow's communications needs. Based almost fully on Bell System standards and practices, NPSTN is the most period-correct, functional, and feature-rich collectors' network. Anyone can join NPSTN, and you don't need a full switchroom's worth of equipment to get started, either — you can be remotely homed off of somebody else's switch, or if you want to get your hands dirty, you can run your own tandem, be it electromechanical or electronic.

Here are just a few of the key features of the network:

The best part? It's all free and community-run. NPSTN is a non-corporate and not-for-profit endeavor made possible by community volunteers.