mmengel@cuuxb.ATT.COM (Marc W. Mengel) (01/29/89)
In article <198@ecicrl.UUCP> clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes: >Regarding people asking about the legality of various modems in Europe. >People have to remember that each country usually has its own electrical >codes and standards. The reason why a particular modem isn't legal in >some country but is legal in others often has nothing to do with >"monopolistic" PTT's per-se. It could be a safety requirement. It >could also be that North American style modems simply wouldn't work there >even if they were legal! [ electrical isolation, impedances, etc. ] >I wouldn't blindly assume that restrictions on modems are due to monopoly. >Nor are the standards themselves - each country has different tradeoffs on >what is a justifiable risk, and are often working under different environments >(eg: 240V mains in Britain). Our CSA is tougher than US UL. BTT (Britain) >is overall much tougher than CSA. Etc. Okay, so why doesn't some friendly electrical engineering type out there build an isolation-box that takes Swedish or German or English phone signals in/out one side, and U.S. phone signals in/out the other, with possibly opitcal isolation in the middle. +----------+ Tephone Net============| ISOLATOR |===============Modem +----------+ Then this little isolation box is the only thing that needs to meet the local standards is the isolation box, and not the actual equipment (modems, etc.). With such a box, you could hook up telephones, modems, fax machines, answering machines, etc. I'm cross posting this to sci.electronics... anybody over there heard of such a thing? >Chris Lewis, Markham, Ontario, Canada >{uunet!attcan,utgpu,yunexus,utzoo}!lsuc!ecicrl!clewis -- Marc Mengel mmengel@cuuxb.att.com attmail!mmengel ...!{lll-crg|att}!cuuxb!mmengel