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Old 10th Jul 2021, 4:01 pm   #21
duncanlowe
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

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Quote:
Originally Posted by duncanlowe View Post
it took them weeks to get round to looking into it. In the meantime I'm sure some of the international students ran up a 'bit' of a bill.
I don't know about England but in Germany the alternative operators didn't provide billing pulses.
The situation I'm describing wasn't using an alternative operator, rather an alternative method of accessing British Telecom. I'm pretty sure they will have been billed.
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Old 11th Jul 2021, 4:47 pm   #22
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

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Mercury was initially owned by Cable & Wireless 80% and Bell Canada 20%. Then became fully owned by C&W, then bought by Vodafone.

Cheers

Aub
In a nutshell yes.

I started at Mercury in 1990 and although I was a networks engineer I did occasionally have to visit someone’s house (usually an elderly person) and reprogramme the Mercury button.

31 years later still here

John
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Old 12th Jul 2021, 4:10 pm   #23
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

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You weren't expected to remember your 10 digit PIN.
The blue button was typically programmed thus:

131[pause][10 digit PIN]

The PIN was sent as DTMF but very often the local exchange was yet to be "modernised" so the initial 131 had to be sent as LD followed by the appropriate command (*) to switch the remaining digits to DTMF.

Some businesses opted for cost-centre codes, these were any arbitrary 2 or 3 digit code appended after the PIN, and Mercury would separate out each unique code on their itemised bill.

Later came the Mercury 132 service which worked the same as all the other indirect carriers we all got to know.
In a nutshell .
The 10 digit code was more usefull for the customers with a multi line system. Something named a "Smart box" was wired in between the telephone system and the outside world and this code programmed into that. What is not so well known was that the likes of service engineers etc had their own set of codes which would work from anywhere . Nip into a phone box ( all before mobile phones) , dial 131 and no cash needed.
Caused problems when Mercury changed to 132 (possibly as a security measure as the new codes were linked to one phone number = CLI) as the ID code was linked to a phone.
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Old 12th Jul 2021, 5:08 pm   #24
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

[QUOTE=stitch1;1389323]
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Originally Posted by Aub View Post
Mercury was initially owned by Cable & Wireless 80% and Bell Canada 20%. Then became fully owned by C&W, then bought by Vodafone.

Cheers

Aub
In a nutshell yes.

I started at Mercury in 1990 and although I was a networks engineer I did occasionally have to visit someone’s house (usually an elderly person) and reprogramme the Mercury button.

31 years later still here

John[/QUOTE

Hi John. Hope you still enjoy working there. I was only there for two years in the early ninetees. I was at the switched network management centre at Cornwall Street, in Birmingham, and moved to the (then) new site at Small Heath Birmingham.

Aub
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Old 12th Jul 2021, 5:20 pm   #25
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

Hi Aub,
Yes as much as one can enjoy work!

I've been to Cornwall street many times sadly no longer a Vodafone site but Small Heath still is going and probably one of a few original Mercury offices.

131 and 132 were replaced with Carrier Pre Select where BT routed the calls of the registered user to the alternative carrier.
We no longer support the residential market but CPS is still used by businesses.


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Old 12th Jul 2021, 9:52 pm   #26
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

Hi-Aub , stich may never been there, but you might have. The street has been renamed from what it was in the 90's. Vanderhoff home of the ( not so ) Smartbox ,now a housing estate on the outskirts of Nuneaton. ( The old Bermuda estate).
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Old 17th Jul 2021, 12:33 pm   #27
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

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Hi-Aub , stich may never been there, but you might have. The street has been renamed from what it was in the 90's. Vanderhoff home of the ( not so ) Smartbox ,now a housing estate on the outskirts of Nuneaton. ( The old Bermuda estate).
Ah, I wondered what sort of products Vanderhoff made. I knew it was electronics, but they didn't tell us what kind (we did a school visit).
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Old 17th Jul 2021, 10:52 pm   #28
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

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Hi-Aub , stich may never been there, but you might have. The street has been renamed from what it was in the 90's. Vanderhoff home of the ( not so ) Smartbox ,now a housing estate on the outskirts of Nuneaton. ( The old Bermuda estate).
Ah, I wondered what sort of products Vanderhoff made. I knew it was electronics, but they didn't tell us what kind (we did a school visit).
The firm I worked for ( at the time), seemed to have a habit of picking up lame horses to maintain. great from the accountant's view, I suppose ,but not so great if all you were trained to do was get in there, and (hopefully get it right first time). Accountants loved it if we had to make repeat visits as each visit meant a cheque from the warranty company , but more grief from the customer. Added to which, at the time, BT (and engineers) saw mercury as a threat. So along with the possibility of lost/extra digits being sent to line, you also had the prospect of finding ( more often) the power to the "Smartbox" being turned of or the box bypassed. Or (occasionally ) phoning Mercury to find that "service had been stopped due to a ' financial' disagreement.
I believe that Vanderhoff also made someforms of telephones.
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 1:30 pm   #29
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

I used Mercury in the 1990s with the same Philips phone as in post #15.

The Mercury button was basically a memory button which stored the Mercury access number. This was usually 131 then a pause then a 10-digit customer PIN code supplied when you subscribed to Mercury.

Instead of having to dial a whole load of extra digits, the customer simply pressed the Mercury button on their phone, followed by the number they wanted to call. It was not necessary to remember the long Mercury PIN code. Indeed, Mercury sent the PIN code by post in two separate parts and advised the customer to destroy the letter containing the code once they had programmed their telephone equipment. However, I memorized the number and found it could be dialled from other telephones on the same exchange (High Wycombe) with the calls being charged to my Mercury account. This was useful, as there was a BT Phonecard payphone at the place I worked. I could dial 131+PIN+number on it using a pocket tone dialler, without needing a Phonecard. I would be charged Mercury rates, which were cheaper except for local calls. Even then, a short local call on Mercury could be cheaper than a BT Phonecard "unit".

The Mercury PIN code only seemed to work from the same exchange as your account was registered to.

Around the mid 1990s Mercury introduced another access number 132 which was specific to one phone line only. The customer had to register their line with Mercury, then they only needed to dial 132 + required telephone number so a Mercury button was unnecessary.

Mercury also offered a Smart Socket dialler box. The customer simply plugged the box into their master phone line socket, then plugged all their other telephone equipment including modems or fax machines into the Smart Socket. The smart socket analyzed the outgoing numbers dialled through it and automatically routed the call via BT or Mercury depending on whether it was local or long distance / international. The customer didn't need to remember to press a Mercury button or dial anything other than the regular phone number. Oddly, the box automatically routed freefone 0800 numbers via Mercury too, even though there was no cost saving to the customer. Presumably Mercury earned a commission from this.

When a call had been routed via Mercury and the called person answered, a brief 'beep' was heard on the line by both parties. I'm not sure why? Perhaps it was for use by automatic charge-recording equipment, or maybe just to let the customer know their call had gone through Mercury instead of BT.

Customers with a Mercury Smart Socket could force a call to go via BT by dialling 121 then the number.
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 2:36 pm   #30
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

I'm just looking back at my old work diaries, and from the 11th August 1997 to at least the 6th May 1998, while working for an independent maintainer, I did nothing else except traverse the country clawing back Mercury customers to BT.

Sometimes I was the very technician who had put their calls onto Mercury a few months earlier, when working on behalf of MCL!

The story I had to give them was the same, it will mean cheaper calls.

Quite often the manager would not be convinced (Nether would I be, privately).

I was under pressure to get these done, using my knowledge of various office PABX systems to reprogram them, or when fitted disabling the Mitel smart boxes carrying the trunk lines.

I was not at ease with myself doing this work and was greatly relieved when moved on to traditional maintenance.




hamid_1
Yes everything in your post is how I remember it, particularly how the PIN would work on any line on the same exchange.
The "beep" was just a confidence tone to show the call was being carried by MCL. Do you remember that it sometimes confused phone/fax switching? If you asked nicely, Mercury could switch the beep off on your account.
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 2:41 pm   #31
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

Mercury are still around: I see quite a few concrete manhole-covers with the Mercury logo on them in places like Swindon and Reading.

I wonder who these days actually owns the fibre they laid ?
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 2:59 pm   #32
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

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Mercury are still around: I see quite a few concrete manhole-covers with the Mercury logo on them in places like Swindon and Reading.

I wonder who these days actually owns the fibre they laid ?
Good question, the Wiki article suggests the assets went C&W -> NTL -> NPower

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Communications
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 4:41 pm   #33
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

Most of the Mercury ducting was for network fibre to businesses and core network and is still used but now owned by Vodafone. C&W ones Mercury acquired cable companies like bell cable media, nynex and some others and were branded C&W Communications for a while they then decided this was mostly residential and pulled out selling the residential part of the business to NTL who are now part of Virgin Media.
C&W we’re spit again between the ‘commonwealth’ business and the UK, they continued to lose money in the UK and were bought by Vodafone, they are now the ‘fixed’ arm of Vodafone.

John
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 5:58 pm   #34
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

My only contact with Mercury was - like you say - with their 'business' arm - several buildings and sites I was involved in commissioning had Mercury fibre-ducting included in the original-build, subsequently to be provisioned with NTL [later Virgin Media] Metro-Ethernet services, which were vastly cheaper than BT MegaStream or similar.

Given the distances [sometimes nearly a mile across open country] that Mercury had to trench in order to reach some of these sites, where we were the only possible client - I doubt they would ever have covered their costs let alone made a profit from us!
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 8:44 pm   #35
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

Before town centres were fibred out licensed microwave radio was very common, I’m not 100% sure but Mercury may have been the first provider to do this for business connections. I spent a lot of time maintaining these mostly 2Mbps links At Bewick Court in Newcastle we had point to point links literally to the street below. Before H&S was invented we’d hang over the edge in winter brushing off the snow!

This is Berwick Court today some links still in use, all 4 sides were full at one time. The larger dish is the network link and has bee there since the late eighties.

John
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 10:25 pm   #36
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

I've been to a few maintenance calls where BT Primary Rate ISDN was provisioned over a microwave radio link.
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 10:32 pm   #37
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

I have mentioned seeing Mercury & some other now unused brands on manhole covers in Manchester.

My parents cable TV went from C&W - NTL - Virgin.

I think some of our local cable was installed by Nynex, before we were connected.
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 11:30 pm   #38
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

Re the mercury PIN only working on your own exchange. If in London it would work over the whole director area which was great as far as I was concerned.

When cost centre codes were introduced I gave different codes to different family households and presented each one with their bill monthly. The advantage was that the Mercury service charge could be shared by all.
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Old 18th Jul 2021, 11:37 pm   #39
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

It precedes Mercury. We bought the rights to use British Relay ducts, and probably others too. Steam ducts in Dockland come to mind. Existing ducts are valuable, being expensive to dig, hence the use of Microwave links (which were also very expensive) where line of sight existed. Happy days!
Of course, nowadays the BT monopoly is long dead and diversity is well established in the industry. Blue buttons did play their minor part in a revolution.
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Old 20th Jul 2021, 8:39 pm   #40
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Default Re: Telephone with Mercury button

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Re the mercury PIN only working on your own exchange. If in London it would work over the whole director area which was great as far as I was concerned.

When cost centre codes were introduced I gave different codes to different family households and presented each one with their bill monthly. The advantage was that the Mercury service charge could be shared by all.
As I mentioned in an earlier post ( without any detail), the 131 codes could be used in almost any exchange area. I was employed by a firm that commissioned and attempted to repair problems with the Vanderhoff ( and other ) Smart boxes. We found it more convenient on the road to nip into a phone box and dial 131, then the * then the pin code, followed by the office number. I never had any problems from north of Nottingham through the Midlands and a bit further.
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