Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 28 May 91 13:01 EDT From: Alex Beylin Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: A Visitor Observes Phone Service in the UK Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 407, Message 3 of 8 Lines: 48 Having just come back from a vacation in England, I thought I'd share some of my observations with Telecom readers. Please note that all information is based on personal experience and informal surveys and may be widely off-base. First and foremost - BT is replacing traditional red telephone booth with modern looking glass enclosures. I called the BT operator in Coventry and was transfered to a person responsible for sales of telephone boxes. Unforunately, he told me that there is a very long waiting list to buy them. He also indicated that only one in every three or four units are sold and the rest are thrown away due to damage. Now, if someone on the net with better BT connections then I could find out where they throw them away, I don't think painting and replacing some of the glass pannels would be that big of a job. I have some connections in Midlands to help ship a few of those to US. Could we arrange a group buy of those with BT? Also while I was there, BT released their profit statements and all hell broke loose in the papers. The common opinion seems to be that BT makes more money then they should. On the home front, majority of people I met still have BT as their one and only carrier. One of my friends just added Mercury to his business phone and observed 35+% drop in LD charges. He had to replace all his phones as the standard BT phone was not compatible with Mercury (no tones?). His current phone is made by Southern Bell. He has to dial an access number to get to the Mercury network. The state of pay phone confusion is unbelivable. BT phone cards are widely available but work only in BT phones. Mercury phone cards are also available, but work only in Mercury phones. In London most BT and Mercury pay phones will not accept coins - I was forced to carry both cards. Some BT phones do accept coins and even give change, contrary to the sign on the phone. None of the home phones I used (8-10) had tone dialing - pulse only. Well, enough rambling. As I said, all this is just personal observations and may not resemble truth in any way. Alex Beylin, Systems Specialist | +1 313 759-7114 alexb@cfctech.cfc.com | Chrysler Corp. MIS sharkey!cfctech!alexb | Distributed Systems Group