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Black automatic desk phone with a Bakelite cover and a metal base. It is fitted with a plastic rotary dial containing a numeral inner ring. On the right is an earthing button (offering the possibility to contact the telephone exchange) and in the middle a ringer volume control. The Bakelite handset with a black braided cord sports the indication "OTE" in the centre. The type W48 refers to the year of importation of the device, in 1948. In postwar West Germany, this model constituted an improved alternative to the types W36 and W38, which did not meet the standards laid down by the German Post Office, competent authority responsible for the telecommunications sector, for the establishment of Germany's "national telephone". Their significant difference concerned the ringtone: the W48 was upgraded with the addition of pure metal gongs. At the same time, the device was issued for the first time in white. The W48 was massively used until the end of the 1970s as the German Post Office's model device as well as the predominant telephone device supplied to Western countries subscribers.