Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Lars J Poulsen Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phone Wiring and Voltage Levels in Britain/Ireland Message-ID: <1744@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 1 Dec 89 19:31:55 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Lars J Poulsen Organization: Advanced Computer Communications, Santa Barbara, California Lines: 79 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 545, message 2 of 7 Lars J Poulsen wrote: >-> - 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, In article K.Hopkins%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk writes: >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. I should have checked my archives (or let a UK person deal with this). I posted before my second cup of coffee... But in the back of my mind is a memory that the emergency number in England used to be "9-9-9", and I was told that this was because 9 was the longest pulse train; that using "0-0-0" as on the continent would not have worked because "0" was at the head of the dial, and false 0's were common due to bouncing hook switches. Guess I must be getting old and forgetful. > 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 ? In the fog of morning, it seems I expressed myself backwards. Thanks to Kevin Hopkins for a most informative article about Irish telephony. I really appreciated the bit about old exchanges in the cities and all-digital in the rural areas. And I can reinforce the warning about customs. Two years ago, my wife and I spent Christmas with my family in Copenhagen. The customs officials clearly had been instructed to be on the lookout for US electronics products (VCRs, telephone equipment etc). They had a hard time believing that a whole suitcase of presents would not involve any contraband and were almost ready to start opening gift packages when we showed them the itemized list and offered them to select one or two packages for verification. If they really want to throw the book at you, there are lots of ways: a. US bought equipment of course will not carry the type-approval of the local PTT. b. Cordless phones are radio transmitters and violate radio licensing rules. (Same for baby monitors). c. Electrical equipment purchased in the US typically will not carry the electrical safety approval stamp of the European country. (Though identical equipment sold in Europe may; in most cases, though, the US version will have deleted the 220V option). d. Most European countries have fairly high VAT (value-added sales tax) (on the order of magnitude of 20 %) and consumer electronics products are subject to luxury taxes (usually a wholesale level sales tax of another 10% - 25%) and sometimes an import duty of 10% or so on top of that. In those cases, taking such products into the country without paying these taxes is of course illegal. But technically, it usually works. When I first moved to the US, I kept my account with the Copenhagen phone company when they disconnected my phone line (because paying half of the monthly fee while not having any line for a year was cheaper than terminating service and opening new service a year later. They told me to keep the instrument until I got reconnected. So I took it with me, and impressed the heck out of my US friends with my Scandinavian designer telephone with the inverted keypad. Worked just fine. / Lars Poulsen (800) 222-7308 or (805) 963-9431 ext 358 ACC Customer Service Affiliation stated for identification only My employer probably would not agree if he knew what I said !!