Alex Beylin <alexb@cfctech.cfc.com> (05/28/91)
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
Martin Baines <artinb@bottomdog.uk.sun.com> (05/29/91)
In article <telecom11.407.3@eecs.nwu.edu>, alexb@cfctech.cfc.com (Alex Beylin) writes: [preabmle and questions re red phone boxes deleted] > 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. See my prior posting today! > 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. Depends where you live and when you got your phone as to whether it is Mercury compatible. If you live in an exchange that is digital (50% of exchanges, 75% of the population) then all you need to get Mercury is a tone phone. If you get a *new* phone from BT it may/may not be tone: it seems to depend what they have in stock (any comments?). If you live on a pulse exchange, to get Mercury you need a phone that can change from pulse to tone in the middle of dialing: the pulses to get to Mercury, then tones for your PIN and the number. A number of commercially sold phones have a "Mercury" button: this basically dials Mercury for you and (depending on model) may dial the PIN as well. This is just a convienience but often not understood by phone salesmen. > 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. The signs on BT phones say that they only give change out of the coins you put in, not that they don't give change. E.g. If I put in a single #1 coin and only make a 10p call, I get no change; but if I put in 10 * 10p coins and make the same call, I get 90p back. As for PhoneCard verses coin availability: depends where you are. In most cases I can think of, BT usually puts at least one coin phone in every cluster of phones. I cannot think of *any* coin operated Mercury phone (although I am told they exist!), all the ones I have come across take MercuryCards (tm) *and* credit cards. I would love to see a common standard for pre-paid cards, but I would hate to be the person who worked out how to cross charge between phone companies for their use. An exercise for Oftel in their spare time perhaps? |> None of the home phones I used (8-10) had tone dialing - pulse only. This is basically customer lazyness: most people don't know the difference so don't bother to get tones. You can walk into any store selling phones these days and get a tone phone for same price as a pulse phone. There is no added charge from BT for using tones. If you live in an area that Mercury can do direct connect (lucky you!) tones are mandatory. "You might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment" Martin Baines, Sales Support Manager, Sun Microsystems Ltd, 306 Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 4WG, UK Phone Email UK: 0223 420421 JANET: Martin.Baines@uk.co.sun International: +44 223 420421 Other UK: Martin.Baines@sun.co.uk Internet: Martin.Baines@UK.sun.com
John Slater <johns@scroff.uk> (05/31/91)
In article <telecom11.409.8@eecs.nwu.edu>, artinb@bottomdog.uk.sun.com (Martin Baines) writes: >> He has to dial an access number to get to the Mercury network. > Depends where you live and when you got your phone as to whether it is > Mercury compatible. If you live in an exchange that is digital (50% of > exchanges, 75% of the population) then all you need to get Mercury is > a tone phone. Not true, Marty. Availability of Mercury access is dependent on whether Mercury has got around to making service available yet. This in turn depends on how close geographically a switch is to Mercury's nationwide figure-of-eight fibre optic network. This may often correspond with digital exchanges, but not necessarily. > If you get a *new* phone from BT it may/may not be tone: > it seems to depend what they have in stock (any comments?). To the best of my knowledge all of BT's phones for sale have been dual-signalling for a couple of years or so. They're slowly getting round to promoting "Star Services" (call-waiting, redirection etc) and are installing as many tone-capable phones as they can. > If you live on a pulse exchange, to get Mercury you need a phone that > can change from pulse to tone in the middle of dialing: the pulses to > get to Mercury, then tones for your PIN and the number. True. Almost all phones sold in the UK that are capable of tone signalling have a fairly automatic way of doing this (in other words buttons for abbreviated dialling can be programmed to perform mixed dialling. E.g. in Hayes-speak : ATDP131T,1234567890 to access Mercury and dial account number and PIN). John Slater Sun Microsystems UK, Gatwick Office Disclaimer : I work for Marty Baines, so I have to be nice to him.