"Tim Lamb" wrote in message
...
Question from my daughter..... who, having acquired a *sit up and beg*
American push button telephone wonders why it does not work when plugged
into her UK domestic telephone socket.

Vague fatherly explanations such as different voltage/pins used/etc. have
not satisfied:-)

I don't know the actual origin of the unit: nicked from some hotel or
purchased for normal use over there but I am sure someone in here will be
able to explain the problem.


Normal US analog (sorry, analogue) phones will work in the UK, assuming you
have an adaptor to be able to plug them. However, as Peter Parry's site
says they will not actually ring, due to the ring voltage being applied to a
third pin which American phones simply do not have. A special adaptor will
fix this. Personally I've never noticed US phones sounding quiet on UK
lines.

If the phone doesn't work at all (eg, pickup handset, no dialtone) then she
probably doesn't have a normal US analog phone. It's probably using
propriety analog or digital signaling - if he phone is designed to work with
a PBX (so, a hotel phone might be a good example) then this is fairly
likely. Note that it may be possible to get it working if it is proprietary
analog phone - it may be that the signaling is the same, but the pins are
different. If it's digital you're screwed.

Caller ID is another story entirely (might work, might not depending on
phone - different signaling used in the US and UK.)