ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Telephone Talk

Yes, for once common sense prevailed and the whole world adopted the existing DTMF standard.

Maybe at the time that European countries were working on this they were still mindful of the problems caused by the different dial configurations when international dialing came into being (e.g. an exchange name such as PROspect, which would be 776 in America, but Brits would automatically dial it as 770 -- Hence the instructions given to subscribers here to be sure the number is in the all-figure form).

Not only that, but in many countries, including America and the U.K., there were a multitude of different systems in use over the years. Some were rendered obsolete, but still remained in service for decades.

The MF tones listed above and used extensively in the U.S. were used on international signaling between some countries, the system being known as CCITT No. 5 in Europe.

The use of the extra digits for accessing CO phones in Ireland is quite interesting. In the "old" days (up to the 1980s anyway) in Britain, it was standard GPO practice to reserve certain standard numbers for such use. In a 3-digit exchange, 200 and 201, 300 and 301, etc. were generally so reserved, along with 299, 399 etc. as the remote test numbers. , (Offices with 4-digit numbering reserved 2000, 2001, 2999 and so on). Of course, these standard assignments were in place long before DTMF arrived in Britain.

The extra A/B/C/D digits are recognized by the DTMF decoders in modern digital exhcanges here, but the response to them will depend upon which section of equipment is analyzing that digit.

By the way, the extra digits can be dialed by most modems, e.g. on a Hayes compatible device you can include ABCD in the dial string of an ATDT command.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 09-22-2003).]

123456789*0# seems to initiate a test call here in most places.

There are specific test numbers too. Usually ending in 999.

1993 - reads back the line number
1994 - enters "sirius" remote test service, ID & pin required. Tests are carried out by voice prompt menus.

Each switch also has a 199 code that will initiate an automatic line test.
You dial the code, a continious dial tone is returned. You replace the reciever it runs tests on-hook and then rings back after about 30 seconds with a continious tone if it's ok and a broken tone if it's faulty. Various fault conditions produce different tone patterns.

You can usually select various tests by dialling codes 1-0 */# at the continous tone.
depends on the exchange but they test everything relating to that line / card.

199 is reserved as numbering space for engineering / test purposes only and numbers can be of any length and can be unique to a particular concentrator, primary switch, group of switches served by a particular tandem exchange(s) or available nationally.

On the old crossbars dialling 17 initiated a similar line test but it was not interactive. The menu system described above was accessable via 17 on the digital E10B/AXE switches all through the 1980s and early 1990s too.

17 is now used as part of the voicemail numbering system.



[This message has been edited by djk (edited 09-22-2003).]

Various test numbers have also existed here for decades.

Ring-back numbers existed on most exchanges in the past, although there was no standard number. 1267 was a common one, and sometimes a 17x or 18x code, but there were others.

The GPO (and later BT) have employed automatic routiners to test lines for years. The devices became known as SALT machines (Subscriber Apparatus & Line Testing). Again, different codes were used for access, but 175 was a common one, and has become the standard code for all the digital exchanges.

The routiner tests the line, rings back, and gives a verdict: "Testing OK," "Earth A", "Battery B", etc. You then get an interrupted dial tone on which you dial a single digit to perform other tests.

The only option that's really of use to a regular home line is the dial test, for which you dial 1. You get a "Start test" message and a new dial tone, at which you dial all the digits in sequence and the routiners checks for correct frequency/pulse width tolerances.

If you dialed in using pulse, it expects the pulse sequence 1234567890; if you dialed using tone, then it expects the DTMF sequence 123456789*0#. (There is actually a test option for the extra DTMF column ABCD as well.)

The other standard test number found on the new digital systems now is 17070. This gives options for simple ring-back, testing your own line, remote testing of any other line in the country (any BT line, that is), as well as automatically applying a cable-pair identification tone to a line and recording cable IDs at junction boxes.

Paul,

Just out of interest got an explanation of the numbering system used here.

The original hierarchiacal structure made a lot of sense for crossbar switching

0AB CD XXXX

0 = trunk
A = Regional Tandem (ARM)
B = Primary switching node (ARF/ARM)
C or CD = Local switch. (ARF/ARK/SxS/Auto-Manual!!)
Digitalisation removed A&B&SxS&Auto/Maunal very rapidly in the early 1980s. Trunk stuff was all digital by about 84.

Areas with codes ending in 1 had more than one main switch and had another layre of crossbar switching sending the calls the right way.

The current system consists of 50 digital "core switch nodes" and 3 Tertirary switches which act as international gateways primarily.

25 switches are Ericsson AXE
25 are Alcatel E10

These all feed many more local RCU switches scattered around cities or serving smaller areas in the countryside. These could be considered exchanges, and would have in the past, but are basically just remote parts of one of the larger switching centres.

All switches provide tandem switching services, some more than others depending on where they're located and they're interlinked using pretty huge capacity fiber optics fully backed up with digital microwave links. It behaves a lot more like the internet than an old style PSTN system. The nodes are all fully capable of backing eachother up in the event of any kind of problem and the network's got so many ways of sending traffic that it would be almost impossible to damage it. (Which was a vital consideration given the Northern Ireland situation as it was for BT too)

Intelligent network software provides all of the special services like 1800 (Freefone), carrier selection etc etc. In the past freefone was provided by a tertiary switch dealing with Freefone, shared cost and premium services.

Other operators tie into the network at all of the above 50 nodes but generally not at more local level.

The two switching systems have similar specs but strangely enough you can actually identify which system you're calling E10 has more melodic ring tones as its tone system handles transitions much more smoothly. The announcement systems are also slightly different.


[This message has been edited by djk (edited 09-24-2003).]

So presumably this old X-bar network had six regional tandems serving the country.

Do you know if they were located within the areas served by each 0x1 area code, i.e. Cork (city), Limerick, Galway etc.?

The old xbar network never really got completed before digital switching started to arrive on the scene . It had major switching hubs in all of the major regional centres i.e. each area code and there were in some cases, due to the geographical spread of people 2/3 centres. However, the network was pretty bad outside of the urban areas. Most rural areas, with some notable exceptions, went straight from manual to digital.

The hierarchical system of numbering basically had a main trunk centres at Cork serving Co. Cork (02), Galway serving much of the west (09), Limerick serving the midwest (06), Waterford serving the south east (05X), Athlone serving the midlands (050X), Sligo serving the Northwest (07X) and Dublin serving Co. Dublin and sorrounding areas (01). The 04 area was a bit scattered so had a few centres.
These centres also housed the main operator centres and services like directory enquiries etc. and in many cases still house eircom call centres for DQ and operator services.

Basically at the 0X1 or the 0X01 codes, with a few minor exceptions.

Common control Xbar was slightly more intelligent than SxS so traffic could be routed a little more easily than in the UK network without the need for Directors etc.

However, there were still plenty of rural areas where dialling the area code would get you an operator. Or where you had to dial 10 and ask to be connected to "Exchange name + number"

P&T (The Department of Post and Telegraphs) which was actually a government department rather than a semi-state company was an complete disaster. Underfunded, over staffed and suffered from extreme political interference and bureaucracy that Sir Humphry (Yes Minister) would have been proud of. At its lowest point, just before it was abolished, a 1 to 2 year wait was normal to install a phone line and the trunk network could barely handle calls between Cork and Dublin automatically due to lack of capacity! The only thing they had working semi-acceptably were the urban xbar systems although they were totally under capacity.

It got so bad it turned into a political crisis as it was very seriously damaging business and the result was P&T was completely abolished. Telecom Eireann set up with a mission to digitalise the network as fast as possible. They cut a deal with Alcatel and set up a joint venture company, Telecom Alcatel, with them to manufacture and roll out the E10 network and did a similar deal with Ericsson to speed up AXE roll out.

E10 switches were manufactured in Cork in modular racks for larger switches or for rural areas in weather proof air conditioned containers which could be dropped in to a town, usually behind the post office or police station and hooked up to a fiber optic link back to their parent exchange and tie in the local subscribers. It meant digital phone lines started popping up very rapidly.

Ericsson AXE systems were manufactured in Athlone, in the midlands and similarly rolled out.

Telecom Eireann actually developed considerable expertise in this area and ended up acting as consultants for network modernisation projects around the world.

Telecom Alcatel and the Ericsson joint venture companies were wound down but both companies retained some manufacturing/assembly, mostly to support Eircom and pretty large training facilities. Ericsson have a centre in Dublin used to train people in digital switching systems from right around the world. It's complete with working model AXE switching systems.

Alcatel still does quite a lot of software development and training in West Cork as well as supporting Eircom's alcatel network.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 09-26-2003).]

Fellow Brits will have seen the TV commercials for the "New 118" numbers which have replaced our traditional 192 number for DQ (Directory Enquiries).

Anyone calling 192 now hears this message .

Get that last part! "Hey everyone, we've changed our number but we're not allowed to tell you what it is."

When someone calls the information line they refer to, he gets a message telling him just one of the many new directory services, picked at random.

Click here for a few sample calls I made.

Apart from being completely unnecessary, this three-ring circus with different companies and different connection and per minute charges is going to be very confusing for many people.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 10-12-2003).]

Paul

We dropped the old 1190 Directory enquiries number in 1999 moving to 5-digit 118XX numbers

The regulator didn't bother requiring that complicated system of announcements. Each phone company could announce whatever they liked.

E.g. eircom always announces:

This is a recorded message from eircom, the number you have dialled XXX XXX XXXX is not in service, please check the directory or call our directory enquiry service on 11-8-11

While O2 will give you "Your call could not be connected. Please check the number or call O2's prefered Directory Assistance on 11-8-50."

I know that Comreg (the regulator) debated doing something like that or using a system where when callers dialled 1190 they would be read out a randomly assigned DQ provider's number. In the end it was decided it was just far too complicated and the new entrants turned out to be well able to get market share.

The only thing is that over 4 years there was a massive shake out with only 2 main stream DQ providers surviving.

The mobile phone companies all dropped their own directory enquiries numbers and advise customers to call 11-8-50 (the main non-eircom provider.. Conduit, they also operate 118888 in the UK and various other services in Europe)

11-8-11 Eircom's DQ service has also remained very popular.

There are some other 118XX numbers but no one uses them.

The reality of it is that people will only remember 2/3 of these codes at most and once they're available from their mobile and landlines they'll stick with them.


Both of the above services can do the following:
Call completion.
SMS advice of the number you require.
Golden Pages Talking. (Yellow pages)

and provide various information services like traffic, lotto, etc etc.

11811 also co-ordinates pay as you go teleconferencing facilities.

... 11811 have started to introduce a little voice recognition technology to the service too.

When you call the number a pre-recorded greeting from the operator is played "welcome to eircom 11811 xxx speaking ..." they then look up the number and it then asks you do if you wish to be connected (voice recognition of yes or no) If you say no the number is read out by machine (male or female voice depending on the operator). If you say yes you just get "thank you for using 11811.. connection costs XXX.. please hold while we try to connect your call.. "ringing...

11850 does a similar service but uses key presses rather than voice commands.

I can't help thinking that the same thing is likely to happen here. Are all these places going to last very long? I don't believe so.

I received my phone bill today, and there's a leaflet enclosed listing the new DQ services. You can see them all online as well: www.newdirectoryenquiries.com

Linked from another thread:
Things were almost naturally deregulated over here.

RJ11 modular jacks started to appear in about 1979. Before that the phones were usually hardwired or in some instances connected with what looked like a full size stereo headphone jack.

An old phone connection here looks like a small grey/black or beige box about the size or a bar of soap. Inside there are 4 terminals with lugs (only two were used). The phone was connected onto these with spade connectors.

----

Once modular jacks arrived so did a vast array of imported phones, particularly from Canada and the USA. Mostly cordless phones, feature phones and fancier answering machines. All of which seemed to work fine on the irish phone network. As long as they tone dialled they supported all the services. As time's gone on they all support our Caller ID protocall too.

It spured Telecom Eireann to be a lot more creative with its own branded phones (almost all Nortel). So hey started marketing much fancier models.

There are 2 types of modular jack used here:
The normal skirting board style ones and another type that sits behind the phone on the wall. It has a standard 6-way RJ11 socket in the middle of a metal plate with 2 US standard phone mounting clips.

You use a short phone cord (<5cm) plug it in and mount the phone directly ontop of the socket.

Wallphone socket:



There are two raised screws for mounting the phone.


Standard phone socket: