Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Ge' Weijers Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Dutch, British Telecom (was Billing and Answer Supervision) Message-ID: <6194@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 9 Apr 90 12:23:29 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 32 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 242, Message 3 of 9 mao@postgres.berkeley.edu (Mike Olson) writes: >When I was in Holland, my phone had a counter on >the wall, although such a counter isn't required to get a phone >installed; the PTT will keep track of message units whether you have >one or not. In either case, I suspect that they used the same >technology at the billing office. You can hear pulses on the >telephone line whenever the counter increments; you can hear these >pulses at the same rate whether you have a counter or not. This gets >pretty grim on a trans-oceanic call; the pulses come along at better >than one every ten seconds, and make it hard to hear what the person >on the other end of the line is saying. Something is not quite right on the phone line in question. The counter impulse is given on both lines, and the counter is connected between the two signal lines and the ground line. The line transformer (or it's IC replacement) is connected to the two signal lines only. I've used a lot of phones, and usually you don't hear a thing. A complaint would have been in order. Bad isolation might be the cause. As an aside: the counter impulse is not available generally. You might have to pay for it, depending on the age of the exchange and the management of the district. Ge' Weijers Internet/UUCP: ge@cs.kun.nl Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, (uunet.uu.net!cs.kun.nl!ge) University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1 6525 ED Nijmegen, the Netherlands tel. +3180612483 (UTC-2)