[comp.dcom.telecom] Pulse Dialling in US, UK, and Elsewhere

wnp@relay.eu.net (wolf paul) (12/01/89)

In TELECOM Digest 9/535 Lars J Poulsen <lars@salt.acc.com> writes:

>   - UK uses a different dial layout from the rest of Europe and the USA.
>     I would expect Ireland to follow England in this respect.
>     In the US, a "1" is a single pulse, and "0" is ten pulses.
>     In the UK, a "0" is a single pulse, "1" is two pulses,
>     and so on, until "9" which is ten pulses. To find out the status
>     of this, ask your parents to look at the dials on rotary telephones.
>     If "0" is to the left of "9" rather than to the right of "1",
>     then dialling in pulse mode may require translation of the keys.
>     This is usually not convenient for older people.

I am quite sure that this is not a problem in the UK. All UK phones I
have seen (different models and vintages) have exactly the same dial
as US phones, or Austrian and German phones, for that matter, as far
as the arrangement of the numbers is concerned. Of course, the UK and
US use slightly different assignements of letters to numbers, and on
the continent, they have long abandoned the idea of letters on the
phone dial.

I have an old Radio Shack Duofone Pulse Keypad phone, which was bought
in the UK (still with the old red "Do not connect to BT lines" sticker
on it) which works in the UK, in Austria, and in the US\, with no key
translation. I know. I used it myself.


Wolf N. Paul, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
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