Moving to England, Will my phones work there?

[zang206]

My brother is moving to England and he was wondering if his land line phones will work there. I have searched the internet and these forums and it looks like the line and ring voltage is the same, but cannot find any straight answers. Also, is the caller ID compatible?

Thanks for any help,

Jason

 

[donb01]

I do not know specifically about England, but typically over here we run things at 60Hz and "overseas" they use 50Hz. That may affect the ringing of the phone. I beleive they also have a different pulse setting over there, but most folks use tone now (for dialing). I'm not sure if the difference between 50 and 60 Hz would affect the DTMF tones or not - that could affect your ability to dial.

Some phones have a setting you can change for overseas use.

 

[rj21]

It is an offence under British law to connect non-compliant equipment into the UK phone network...oh boy.

That said many people do, and you'll only get caught if the equipment in question is causing problems for BT at the exchange (central office).

All telecommunications equipment in the UK has be be compliant with directives from BABT:

From Wikipaedia:
The British Approvals Board for Telecommunications (BABT) was established in 1982 by the UK government to provide type approval services to the telecommunications terminal industry.

You can contact them at the following address:

customer.services@babt.com

http://www.babt.com

Depending upon how much you want to know also try reading:

http://www.uni-tt.com/001.pdf

61 pages though.

UK compliant kit used to have a green circle sticker on the underside (in the UK).

Problems could arise if the impedance of the handsets you mention does not provide the correct loop impedance required to flag the exchange.

Tolerance to ringing voltage (88VAC upper 100v/ lower 66v) and any reflectance (impedance mismatch) generated by the handsets may be a bigger issue for your brother and/or BT.

Most UK handsets (domestic) are Time Break Recall (TBR), with MD (DTMF). In addition the handsets may benefit from the ability to operate in Earth Recall mode and Pulse Dial.

On the other hand, handsets are available for less than £10.00 from certain well known stores.

 

[Sympology]

As a rule, no.

For starters your socket will be difference, so you would need an adapter for the line cord, if it's one that requires power, again you will need another power supply.
If the impedance doesn't match, it won't ring.

And as said above unless it is BABT approved, it's illegal.

To be honest, by the time you pay the cost of shipping, converters etc, you'll be better off buying a new one. They are dirt cheap.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004