Electricians are expected to do a lot more telephone wiring here these days as Eircom no longer does any internal stuff and the house has to be fully prepared with ducting etc...

this is the current system: http://www.reci.ie/eircominterface.pdf

Any other Telco as over the top about it?

Nope, AFAIK Telekom Austria will do all your phone wiring up to the jacks, just the cheapest way (stapled to the walls). If you supply the cabling you can have it all in-wall. They even offer (or offered?) small (5 branches) PABXes. We still have one of them, they were manufactured from 1980 to 1990. I think you can figure out the mentality of our Post if you hear we got it in fall 1992... When it broke the last time we were told there aren't any more spares... the technicians just carry around a few salvaged ones in their vans and replace with old parts... and you can have the beasts repaired until they run out of old ones... he tried to give us one, but it only worked with pulse dial. So he said he was going to dump it. Now it's mine... might come handy once...
And when we asked for a new handset cord he told us they only got a few spares every 2 years and in 2 weeks they were all gone... slightly reminds me of eastern block!4

This is from personal experience:

In old flats (such as the ones I've lived in), the wire exits from a hole in the wall and goes into a small terminal block on the wall supplied by the telephone company (in my childhood it was called New York Telephone, now it's called Verizon - whatever that means ).

In the old days it used to be a type 42-A terminal block - a funky looking little 2-inch by 2-inch square of hard plastic with four terminal screws, only two of which were used for a single line private phone.

See:


A square box-like plastic cover would be fitted over this block to protect it. Hence the colloquial term "box" for this type of fitting.

Nowadays, the 42-A block has been supplanted, and is commonly replaced, by a weird looking "Network Interface Box".

Basically this is a "box" with an RJ-11 type socket so you can plug your phone directly into this socket to test for faults (to see if you get dialtone so you know if it's your interior wiring that is at fault or the telco wiring).

I used a big picture here so you can see how it looks. To access the jack, you rotate the spring-loaded cover out of the way.



From this block or socket the subscriber-provided wires may be run to their respective extension sockets.

Other times (such as my case as a child when we only had _one_ phone), this was THE only phone socket for the entire flat.

When that was the case, if you had a phone with an RJ-11 type plug, you'd just get one of these simpler (read: cheaper) boxes, which is a 42-A block with a cover fitted with a modular jack on the side.



All fixed wiring was surface-mount (stapled to the wall and baseboard trim) and used 2-pair cable (four solid conductors in a jacket).

Bill Addiss and other USA-based electricians, what is phone wiring like in modern-day houses and apartments? I'm only familiar with the old methods in old apartments.

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 01-09-2004).]

a lot of 1970s houses would have a square box with terminals at the corners VERY like that.

It had a plastic door that pushed shut on it and normally you just wired extensions into it in a daisy chain configuration.

The new installations are all like that PDF though..

I think it's a little excessive although i think they're futureproofing for broadband services etc etc..

Old style phone connectors were pretty much like the connector block described above, with 2 main differences. The phone cord wasn't connected via screw terminals, it had spade connectors. And the cover screw had a seal sticker with this logo over it.


(Of course without the Post.at text, that's recent www-frenzy nonsense. They even call their Postbus service Post.Bus).

There were four terminals inside, only two of which were used. IIRC they were A, B, E and W2. E was probably Earth (never saw that used) and an auxiliary bell would be connected to A and W2.
Party line phones used a huge relay box (about 20x20x10 cm) until they disappeared in the late 90ies or maybe even early 00s. Later there were several styles of modular jacks. The residential version was pretty much like a 4-pole version of a headphone jack only it got thinner towards the tip with each ring. About 1cm in diameter (first ring). Usually only one socket, if there were more they were wired in some master-and slave setup that prevented from overhearing any conversations. Commercial locations used a 10 or 12-pin rectangular plug (angle plug with all the pins sticking out). Later the so-called TSS plug was introduced. TSS stands for "Telefon-Steck-System", i.e. phone plug system.



and the matching socket as it is usually installed by the Telekom, 3rd party sockets look different.

There are underground phone lines run to some new housing developments, but in general if somebody requests service for an existing house, BT (British Telecom) will just surface run the drop line by the most convenient route.

That usually entails anchoring it to a bracket at about eaves level, running along/down an outside wall, then through to the inside to the network demarcation, which for new services is the NTE5 interface .

The NTE5 has a removable panel at the bottom, and the subscriber is allowed to remove it to connect extension wiring. BT will also advise anyone having line problems to first remove the panel and plug their phone directly into the main jack to check whether the fault lies on the internal wiring.

Everything up to and including the NTE5 is BT-owned. Before the NTE5 was introduced the master jack had no such removable panel, and strictly speaking the subscriber was not allowed to access it to connect extension wiring. (They were expected to either connect via a plug and two-way adapter or get BT to connect the extension wiring -- In practice, of course, that didn't always happen! ).

Until the early 1980s systems were most often hardwired where there was just a single phone, the line running to a 52A connection block:



The square cutout at the end of the box accepts the grooved, molded strain-relief of the phone cord.

All of these older systems had the entire system, including all extension wiring, owned and installed by the GPO (General Post Office), and nobody else was supposed to interfere with it in any way.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-09-2004).]

In the above PDF file the Irish NTU ISDN connections are for this:

The two line wires feed an ISDN NTU which is connected to that white connector box on the "out side"

2 wires come back from the ISDN NTU and are connected to the "in side" of that white block.
These provide an analogue phoneline hardwired back to one of the analogue ports ont he ISDN NTU

Paul,
So that's what them connection blocks are officially known as.
I've got one here, with the telephone still on the end of it, that I changed over to a push-button type a few years back.

The block pictured above is the one used with the 700-style phones, introduced in 1959, and standard throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The 52A came in various colors to match the phone and cord.

Notice the strap fitted across two terminals. This was generally left in place in single-phone, non-party-line installations to link the bell to one side of the line. The strap could be removed to add a series-connected extension bell.

In the USA (and Canada at least), 3 pair twisted pair cable is usually installed.
(as opposed to the 2 pair non-TP wire, called
JKT, distinguished by the red/green/yellow/black conductors)
Astute (usually after market installers) will install Cat5 wire for telephone.

Around here anyway, there is a slightly heavier
JKT with 3 conductors, and in an older house, I have come across an old 3 wire twisted cable, with brown insulation, with red/green/yellow silk strands in the wires.

The NIDs around here have just bolt terminals where the interior wiring connects.

Classicsat:

Very similar here.

Internal domestic or similar wiring is 3 twisted pair (solid copper core) or Cat5. It's been 2 or 3 twisted pair since the late 1970s / early 1980s.

Older cabling tends to be heavier open twisted pair with a solid copper core grey and white coloured. About the thickness of bell wire.

Any non-twisted pair cable was not installed by Telecom or to Eircom/Telecom specs.

Telecoms cabling is either ducted/dropped loose underfloor boards, thru the attic or behind plasterboard walls.

or, more usually, stapled with round cable staples into the grove of the skirting board. If it has to come down from a ceiling it's usually stapled along a door architrave to hide it.

The old and the new cabling systems are pretty neat though. It's usually pretty narrow round beige cable and is easily painted over.

The new NTU2001 main phone socket is a big brute of a thing though. About 1.5" deep when not flush fitted.. the DSL splitter version is 2" !
Flush fitting's rather tricky too as eircom require an extra deep box.

The old sockets were much neater... square (about the size of a UK lightswitch) rounded beige box surface mounted it only protruded about 1cm.

In general in Ireland Eircom / Telecom were never very fussy about what DIY work people did. Provided you left their main socket connected as the first point you could always do what ever you wanted.

They always sold DIY self-install extension kits which contained 3 RJ12 (6-way) sockets a load of cable and a tool for pushing cable into those little connectors they use. You didn't even have to pare the cable.. just push it in. Each socket has an IN and an OUT side you simply daisy chain them along. Considerng that my grandmother managed it it was pretty simple stuff

There's also a DIY PBX.

1 line + 4 extensions.. it's been around for years and is made by a company in Ireland called MDS.
Basically a very small digital switch in a 10cm X 10cm wall mountable box.
Plug a phone line in one side. 4 Extensions out the other. "Interlink 1+4"
The fancier version included a printer socket and was aimed at small guest houses / B&Bs. Called "Interlink 2+6" (2 lines + 6 Ext)

They retailed at about €100 - €150
and shipped with EVERYTHING in a box..
1 X PBX
1 X AC adaptor
4 X standard eircom sockets
and plenty of cable.

You had to provide your own phones and you programmed it from extension 1 with */# codes.

There were a list of standard phones: (Quite a pitty that these are no-longer available they were FAR better than any of the cheap rubbish on the market today) and had weird celtic names
Oisin, Aisling, Shannon, Boyne, Aires (DECT), Contempra and Harmony

Those interlink systems were EXTREMELY popular and you'll still find them in homes, small business, doctors surgeries, shops, restaurants, B&Bs everywhere.

These days it's an ISDN PBX or Eircom Netlink (Small IP based PBX) else they push their re-badged Siemens Gigaset (DECT) systems.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 01-15-2004).]

I think the 3-wire cable and phone cords were probably the norm years ago. I have an old Western Electric 500 phone dated 1962 which is fitted with a cord containing only red, green, and yellow conductors. The yellow would have been used where a ground connection was required, such as for party line ringing.

The old GPO 700-series phones were usually fitted with a 4-wire cord (red, white, green, blue), although some turned out specifically for PBX use were fitted with with only 3-wire (red, white, green).

Quad station wire was almost always used in the past, with cores of blue, orange, green, and brown. (Blue and orange carried the line.)

Since the early 1980s all new cable is the now-standard striped pairs, for residential use most often 2-pair or 3-pair depending upon the installer.

I figure on using at least 3-pair for new installs. The cost difference is negligible, and it never hurts to have a spare pair.

PaulUK:

Almost ALL old rotary dial phones here were Northern Telecom and idential to the typical US standard phones that were around for years.

The later versions were even modular with RJ11 sockets and the standard handset fittings.

I think the American 500-set (and the 1500/2500 TouchTone derivatives) has to stand as one of the best designed telephones ever made.

The GPO 700-series comes close, but the 500-set has the edge with better cradle and handset design.

We still have one of those touchtone versions.. Northern Telecom built to survive ANYTHING.. has even been dropped down the stairs

I've seen plenty of 500-type phones here with Green, Red and Yellow wires too. The terminate on spades.

The yellow would generally be connected to a non-connected spareterminal screw in the junction box just to keep it out of the way. Only the green and red are connected.

The later versions had that heavy high quality RJ11 cabling that you could only get in the 1970s ..

We had
standard 500 dial phones
wall phone version
touchtone version which was initially used in areas where Ericsson ARF crossbars used internal MF signalling (c. 1963 onwards) and could cope with DTMF dialling.

The dial version was a lot more common.



[This message has been edited by djk (edited 01-16-2004).]

Internal Northern Telecom 500 phone

The older phones were certainly built to last. I have the ITT version of a 2500-set sitting next to me on my desk. It's a later modular version from the early 1980s, but still feels hefty compared to today's junk. The old 1962 Western Electric 500 is still much heavier than that though, and the couple of 1970-ish 500s I have aren't that much lighter.

Here's a GPO 746-type phone. Note the different internal layout compared to the 500 sets:

What's the long button on the top of the old GPO phones used for?

Is it an R "Register Recall" button? And if so how was that used in an old system?

Btw, you can answer call waiting on our old Northern Telecom Phone:

On beeps dial 1 (the equivilant of R) and then dial (2) switch calls!

Works fine

The buttons were wired for various functions according to the subscriber's requirements.

For extensions on a PBX the button was commonly used for recall (old GPO equipment always favored earth-recall rather than time-break). Pressing the button switched the incoming call to hold and gave you a new dial-tone from the PBX to call the required extension. After speaking to the other person, you could then either (a) Hang-up to have the call on hold switched through to that extension, or (b) Press recall again to ditch your internal PBX call and be re-connected to the held caller. Really not much different to today's systems in basic terms, though on the older PBXs that was about the extent of switching possible (no call forwarding, camp-on busy or other modern features, although the PBX operator could do more from her console).

The GPO also had some simple intercom plans for small offices, typically just two or three phones. The button(s) could be wired to buzz an extension and switch the line to a local DC supply to provide an intercom facility.

In domestic situations, the two most common applications were a bell shut-off switch and for party lines. The first is self-explanatory.

Two-way party lines used to be quite common here in rural areas, and were always the ground-start type. Instructions for party-line customers were always along the lines of "Lift receiver and check that the line is not in use, then press the CALL EXCHANGE button to obtain a dialing tone." (The GPO always used to call it dialling tone rather than dial tone.)

The switch in this case actually had changeover contacts and opened the loop while grounding one side of the line. The phones at each house were actually wired the same internally, but the tip and ring (white and red) leads were just reversed at the connection block.

We didn't have anytrhing like the complicated relay box to ensure privacy on party lines such as Texas-Ranger has described for old Austrian systems.