Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: pkh%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk (Kevin Hopkins) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phone Wiring and Voltage Levels in Britain/Ireland Message-ID: Date: 30 Nov 89 12:10:13 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Reply-To: K.Hopkins%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Lines: 59 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 539, message 2 of 4 Lars J Poulsen wrote: -> Undoubtedly. Telephone systems are pretty universal; actually they may -> be the most standard technology around. The biggest question is pulse -> dialing: -> - UK uses a different dial layout from the rest of Europe and the USA. -> I would expect Ireland to follow England in this respect. -> In the US, a "1" is a single pulse, and "0" is ten pulses. -> In the UK, a "0" is a single pulse, "1" is two pulses, -> and so on, until "9" which is ten pulses. To find out the status -> of this, ask your parents to look at the dials on rotary telephones. -> If "0" is to the left of "9" rather than to the right of "1", -> then dialling in pulse mode may require translation of the keys. -> This is usually not convenient for older people. Incorrect. The UK uses the normal pulse dialling system: 1 = 1 pulse, 2 = 2 pulses, ..., 9 = 9 pulses and 0 = 10 pulses. The only countries which use a different system might be New Zealand and some of the Scandinavian countries, as discussed here a long time ago. Ireland and the rest of Europe uses the same pulse system as the UK. On the dial of my parents phone (which is pulse) the numbers run 1, 2, ..., 9, 0 anticlockwise from NNE and I thought this was the same on all phones that used the above pulse system. I don't understand the bit about the 0 being next to the 9 implies 1 = 2 pulses, ..., 9 = 10 pulses and 0 = 1 pulse. Surely that's the case if the dial runs 0, 1, 2, ..., 8, 9 ? -> - Tone dialing is the same. But Ireland may not have universal tone -> service. (UK has a large percentage of pulse-only lines; would -> expect Ireland to be in the same boat.) Ireland has one of the most widespread digital phone networks in the world. This is due to that fact that they have only moved to subscriber dialling in the whole of the country in the last 5 to 10 years. Up until then only the major urban areas (Dublin, maybe Cork, Limerick and Galway) had subscriber dialling, and I'm not sure if that included inter-urban area dialling. All other calls had to go via the operator. I suppose this means Ireland is in the weird position of having a phone system where all the rural areas have digital, as they have only recently had their exchanges installed, whilst some of the urban areas still only have a pulse capability because they were the first areas to have subscriber dialling and are using older exchanges. The UK is moving quickly over to tone dialling (System X digital exchanges) but all the new exchanges won't be in place until around 1995. Most, if not all, of the major trunk lines (between major towns and cities) are digital so a fair percentage of the UK calls are digital end to end. +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | K.Hopkins%cs.nott.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | Kevin Hopkins, | | or ..!mcsun!ukc!nott-cs!K.Hopkins | Department of Computer Science,| | or in the UK: K.Hopkins@uk.ac.nott.cs | University of Nottingham, | | CHAT-LINE: +44 602 484848 x 3815 | Nottingham, ENGLAND, NG7 2RD | +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+