European telephone

[SIRCOOKS]

i just visited the uk, and purchased a really cool cordless phone that i liked, they told me to get a converter and everything should be allright. Wron...the thing is not working, i have the right converter, but the ting is always blinking like its looking for a signal...can anyone help me?

[waheed]

it would be helpful if you mentioned the make and model of the telephone you purchased.

[SIRCOOKS]

oh sorry...its a BT FREESTYLE 220 digital cordless telephone

[BJ_M]

different wiring on the phone -- you will have to rewire the phone -- plus the power supply works on 50hz and are you not on 60hz (which can effect some things) ..

* The middle pair of the RJ11 (pins 3,4) carries the phone line. The line cord must connect that pair to pins 2 and 5 of the BT socket. This would also be the situation with equipment brought from the USA.

* The line cord between the RJ11 and the BT plug is a straight cord. In this case, the manufacturer has arranged to put the line onto pins 2 and 5 of the RJ11. It follows that UK models of this type of equipment necessarily differ from the US models (in the USA, it is standard to use pins 3,4 of the RJ11 for the phone line).

Some contributors asserted that one specific arrangement was ALWAYS used. But on the evidence, they must be mistaken.

Some contributors say that the first is more common, while others have more often met the second: so one can only guess what the statistics are.

At least one contributor implied that there are yet other pin assignments that have been used at the equipment end. (There is, however, only one arrangement at the BT plug end. Phew!).

Note that in the USA, the middle pair of the RJ11 (pins 3 and 4) carries the phone line. Therefore, equipment that has been brought from the USA will assuredly be like that, and will need a line cord that connects the RJ11 middle pair to BT pins 2 and 5. It does not follow, however, that equipment supplied in the UK by US companies will necessarily be like this. Several readers have UK versions of gear made by US companies, that definitely has the phone line on pins 2 and 5 of its RJ11 socket.

Specialist shops such as Maplin or Tandy should be able to supply either kind of RJ11-to-BT line cord.

A US traveller unable to get hold of a correct cord could, say, bring a US phone cord with them, buy a British-style extension cord (readily available here), cut both cords in half and splice the appropriate halves together.



http://www.gbnet.net/net/uk-telecom/p3-1.html

[Doramius]

DAMN YOU BJ_M! You beat me to it. But I was relaxing all day yesterday and watching fireworks. 8) Anyway, BJ_M has the right info.

[SquirrelDip]

@BJ_M / Doramius : Could there also be issues with the port impedance, ring validation time, ring voltage ...? I'm using a Sipura SPA-3000 for Asterisk to PSTN and there are multiple international settings.