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The end (almost) of an era!!
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eti:

--- Quote from: IanB on November 30, 2022, 02:06:55 am ---
--- Quote from: PlainName on November 30, 2022, 12:05:48 am ---I was there, but can't remember that detail. What I do remember is not being allowed to connect anything to the phone line and waits of forever for a line to be installed, or just a phone connected to it. If Thatcher's government was the one that removed all that and let me connect modems and pretty much anything I liked to the line, I'd find it hard to get irate with them.

--- End quote ---

I do also remember that time, when phones were hard-wired into a junction box, and you could only get your phone from a limited selection offered by the GPO or its successors. Anyone remember the "TrimPhone", a sleeker and more compact alternative to the big, clunky, traditional phone that was previously all you could get?

The important change was the de-regulation that let you have RJ11 phone sockets installed and buy your own phones from any retailer to plug into them. The other detail was that you weren't "supposed" to plug American phones or modems into the UK system, even though they did actually work.

--- End quote ---

The BT standard phone plugs are of type “431A” and less commonly “631A”, and never RJ11 from CPE to master or extension socket.   There was an RJ11 on the other end of the lead, so that a damaged lead could be unlatched and replaced etc.

“431A” is the 4 pin version, of which pins 2 & 5 are the loop and I think bell wire is pin 4 (there’s a 470K OOS “Opt Out Of Service” resistor + a 2.2uF cap in series across the loop in the standard NTE5 master socket. The R/C pair tells the exchange when there’s no CPE connected, and the cap is to pass the 70-90 ish V/AC @ 17hz current to the bell)

The 2,4 & 5 pins were paralleled up to extension sockets via a detachable faceplate, moulded into which was a (“431A”? Not sure if “631A” maybe?) plug which mated directly into a matching socket on the fixed part of the NTE5. The faceplate carried Krone punch down terminals to which you’d punch down the solid core extension wiring. I spent far too much time “playing” with BT systems (phreaking) as a teenager, hacking Dad’s phone locks (the stupid dial padlock type and another better one stocked by RS which went between the socket and the phone, and was programmable.)

visited my villages Strowger exchange as a teenager, and later when they upgraded it to Ericsson “System Y”, I was allowed to take what I wanted from the skip full of scrap outside. I wish I’d kept some of the selectors - I had a GPO ringing machine too!

I think “631A” may have been for Telex etc. I don’t recall.
IanB:

--- Quote from: eti on November 30, 2022, 07:33:33 am ---The BT standard phone plugs are of type “431A” and less commonly “631A”, and never RJ11 from CPE to master or extension socket.   There was an RJ11 on the other end of the lead, so that a damaged lead could be unlatched and replaced etc.

“431A” is the 4 pin version, of which pins 2 & 5 are the loop and I think bell wire is pin 4 (there’s a 470K OOS “Opt Out Of Service” resistor + a 2.2uF cap in series across the loop; the R/C pair tells the exchange when there’s no CPE connected, and the cap is to pass the 70-90 ish V/AC @ 17hz current to the bell)

I think “631A” may have been for Telex etc. I don’t recall.

--- End quote ---

Yes, you're right, I had forgotten that. It's been a while since I've looked at one. They are of course much bigger than an RJ11 and a different shape.
eti:

--- Quote from: MK14 on November 29, 2022, 11:33:37 pm ---
--- Quote from: eti on November 29, 2022, 11:07:53 pm ---BT are bumbling fools always were.

--- End quote ---

You can't say that.  Maybe you are too young to know, but BT created the really nice, Buzby's adverts.  How can you dislike a company which brings the Buzby's into existence?





--- End quote ---

I can and did say it. I’m in my late 40s so yeah I remember those ads (just).  BT wasted a lot of time and resources. I knew a few people who worked for them, and would often call a senior engineer (I’d never met him) and quiz him about the finer technicalities of the phone network. They’re a dopey company who waste money and rip people off. Back before the internet and before LLU was a thing, they were a monopoly and a fat, lazy one.
MK14:

--- Quote from: eti on November 30, 2022, 08:07:20 am ---I can and did say it. I’m in my late 40s so yeah I remember those ads (just).  BT wasted a lot of time and resources. I knew a few people who worked for them, and would often call a senior engineer (I’d never met him) and quiz him about the finer technicalities of the phone network. They’re a dopey company who waste money and rip people off. Back before the internet and before LLU was a thing, they were a monopoly and a fat, lazy one.

--- End quote ---

I was somewhat jesting, but the Buzby cartoon characters, were fun.

The politics, of very big companies/organisations such as BT, can get quite tricky.  Opinions, as to the best solutions, can vary a lot, e.g. along political lines, such as Nationalise vs Privatise vs Split into smaller companies/organisations vs other solutions.

According to public opinions (user reports), when I looked, a number of years ago.  BT doesn't do too well, in the customer satisfaction department, for their broadband services.

Even if a person goes back in a time-machine, and at the time and date they go back, they are given full authority, to decide how BT and the UKs phone/internet infrastructure, is to be done.  The best course of action(s), are not necessarily obvious.  Some people may think (opinions), that they could do a marvelous job of restructuring the situation.

But I suspect, in practice.  It is a massive minefield of a task, to handle such a complicated task.  Various technologies available at different price points, depending on the year.  Huge amounts of per-existing infrastructure.  A massive customer base, who will potentially complain, if at any time during the upgrade processes, things don't go to plan.

Then there also is money availability, and what actions or not, the various competitors do or don't do.

On top of that, BT have to cope with various changes of Government / Prime ministers, who may change the rules, regulations, laws, money allocations, and even the requirements, at the drop of a hat.

I bet in practice, it is a very difficult job, running BT, and if you don't get it quite right, the man at the top, could get replaced (sacked) by the board of directors (or government, if nationalised), or shareholders.

It is just so easy to sit on a couch, and criticise various big entities, without really understanding all the intricacies going on.
PlainName:

--- Quote ---According to public opinions (user reports), when I looked, a number of years ago.  BT doesn't do too well, in the customer satisfaction department, for their broadband services.

--- End quote ---

BT aren't one company now. There is BT Broadband who basically do the backbone stuff (rather like British Rail look after the tracks and infrastructure on the railways). They are pretty decent and do the job. Then there is BT Retail who sell broadband and the like to consumers. These are the ones that are pillocks and worth keeping well away from. The railway equivalent would be the train operators like Avanti.
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