lars@acc.arpa (08/06/88)
> From: ileaf!io!wally!walters@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Tim Walters) > Subject: American phones in Europe > Date: 3 Aug 88 14:40:22 GMT > Organization: Interleaf Inc, Cambridge, MA > > I may be moving to Germany in the fall, and have been trying to figure > out what I can take with me. Can anyone tell me if U.S. telephones and > modems can be adapted to work in Germany? Any information would be > appreciated. (1) It is probably illegal to attach anything to the telephone system in the federal republic that was not provided by Bundespost. They are the most agressive PTT in Europe in that respect. (2) The telephones will work, except that you have to change plugs on everything. The easiest way is to bring an extension cord from here, and buy an extension cord there and cut both and solder the appropriate halves together. Answering machines are subject to the same restrictions as tape decks in general: AC there is 220V/50Hz vs 110V/60Hz here. The ones that use DC motors will work behind transformers, the ones with AC motors probably wont. (3) Modems depend on the vintage. The latest set of standards, I think is compatible (2400 bps and up). 1200 and 300 bps sure ain't. So if you need to call the computers here, you need to bring modems (or use X.25 gateways). Either way, this is expensive (can you say 90 dollars an hour ?). If I were you, I'd bring my loose extension phones, a handful of extension cords and modular connectors, and one modem compatible with US standards. Also, I'd call TELENET, TYNMNET and Compuserve and ask what's the cheapest way to call them from west Germany. I have done most of these things a few years ago, when I moved back and forth between Copenhagen and California every year. One of the amusing things was the difference between Danish-built telephones for the Danish domestic market and the same telephones when purchased in the US. The Danish version had the keypad reversed to look like a calculator keypad. Hardly anybody her noticed that ; but everybody there noticed that my tropical green GTE Slimline had the keypad "backwards". / Lars Poulsen