Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!bellcore!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: euatdt@euas11g.ericsson.se (Torsten Dahlkvist) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Dial Pad Arrangements Message-ID: Date: 7 Aug 89 08:05:15 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: Torsten Dahlkvist Organization: Ellemtel Utvecklings AB, Stockholm, Sweden Lines: 53 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 279, message 5 of 9 In article OLE@csli.stanford.edu (Ole J. Jacobsen) writes: > Just before the new Tastafones went into production here a > couple of years ago, it was decided to have the keypad layout > DIFFERENT to your favorite Ma Bell. The reason is apparently > that people familiar with calculators should not have to re- > program their hands when shifting to the new phones, I guess > it makes sense, but it is still a bit wierd. The keys still > give the same DTMFs of course so that our phones would work on > your system and vise versa. > > 7 8 9 1 2 3 > 4 5 6 4 5 6 > 1 2 3 7 8 9 > 0 * # * 0 # > > Our keypad Your keypad > To the list of "Famous Mistakes"-quotes, should be added the telecom-group (I'm not sure exactly who participated) who in the early 70:s ran an investigation of people's attitudes towards keypad layouts. They found that most users learned to use the "1-on-top" keypad, as used on most phones around the world today, slightly quicker than they learned the "calculator- style" keypad. The unfortunate conflict between the two lay-outs was noted but the general conclusion was that "there are so many more phones than calculators in this world that if we decide on a new lay-out, IT will be the standard." Of course, a few years after this, the silicon revolution came around and everybody got at least three pocket calculators before they got their first keypad phone. Some countries, like Norway and Denmark, who have held on to their Telco monopolies very long and have been late in converting to DTMF, have been able to force a change of style on their keypads. I believe the Danish lay-out (same as the Norwegian above) was actually passed as a law by their Parliament which even makes it _illegal_ to sell a phone with a different style of keypad in Denmark. Not that I know of anyone ever trying to enforce that law against small-scale dealers, but a large company like Ericsson would be very careful to "toe the line" when selling to Denmark. /Torsten Additional disclaimer: Even though I work for a subsidiary of Ericsson and have in the past been involved in the actual design of some of their products, I am now in no way connected to such activities and my interest in these matters is purely for nostalgic reasons. I am not in any way acting as a representative of Ericsson and the opinions expressed are strictly my own. Torsten Dahlkvist ! "I am not now, nor have I ever ELLEMTEL Telecommunication Laboratories ! been, intimately related to P.O. Box 1505, S-125 25 ALVSJO, SWEDEN ! Dweezil Zappa!" Tel: +46 8 727 3788 ! - "Wierd" Al Yankowitz