Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: johnp@hpgrla.gr.hp.com (John Parsons)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Which Came First?
Message-ID: <12785@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 28 Sep 90 21:56:21 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 694, Message 6 of 12


When Touch*Tone first came out, I remember my father griping that the
number pad was arranged differently from that of ten-key adding
machines, i.e.,

    1 2 3                        7 8 9
    4 5 6   on the phone, vs.    4 5 6  on calculators.
    7 8 9                        1 2 3
      0 			 0 

Does anyone remember why Bell chose to be different?  (I assume ten-key
adders came first).

How are the number pads arranged on European or Asian phones?  The
last time I was in a telco building (1975), dir assisters looked in
paper directories and test boards had rotary dials.  Do the keyboards
of today's operator consoles have the same number pads as us mortals
(7 8 9 on the top), or do they have 1 2 3 on the top row, as on
phones?  Have I reached max_num_of_trivia_questions_per_posting yet? ;-)

Thanks,

John Parsons