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Old 17th Mar 2018, 5:10 pm   #1
Dave Moll
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Default Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

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the "Rabbit" pseudo-mobile-phone. An idea which was rendered instantly obsolete by proper mobile-phones becoming spectacularly cheap to buy and use.
Presumably, it is still usable as a landline 'phone. I have one as a display-only item, but really ought to power it up to check that is the case.
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Having now replaced the dead and decaying rechargeable batteries in the handset and cleaned the battery terminals, I can confirm that it does operate quite happily as a cordless landline telephone.
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Fascinating! Kinda reassuring that it still works 30-odd years after the 'one-sided roaming' idea became obsolete. I can't remember what frequencies the Rabbit system worked on. Are those frequencies still assigned to mobile telephony I wonder?
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I can't remember what frequencies the Rabbit system worked on. Are those frequencies still assigned to mobile telephony I wonder?
As it operates to the CT2 standard, one would assume it to work in the 864-868 MHz range.

I must admit that I did wonder after powering it up whether I was in breach of frequency use regulations by doing so.
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Old 17th Mar 2018, 5:52 pm   #2
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

Apparently Hutchison started the roll-out here in Manchester, and there were certainly a lot access points round and about. Weren't they called Telepoints?
Usually on parades of shops. Each base station supported two simultaneous calls, so I imagine two BT lines would have to be installed. I wonder what incentive the host proprietor was given.
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Old 17th Mar 2018, 6:13 pm   #3
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

yes I remember seeing the Rabbit access-points in shopping-centres and also on rail-station platforms/waiting-areas and they definitely had them in Terminal3 at Heathrow because someone I know had a Rabbit and made a call while we were waiting to see him off on his flight.
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Old 17th Mar 2018, 6:50 pm   #4
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

Hi, from memory I'm sure that Dixons stores used to sell the Rabbit phones and the Dixon's stores in our area (latterly Curry's/Dixon's) had Rabbit access points.
I'm certain I saw a Rabbit sign outside Curry's in Redcar some years ago.

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Old 17th Mar 2018, 6:51 pm   #5
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

When I was at Sinclair the chap in the next lab was working on using the tuner from the FTV1 for Rabbit.
 
Old 17th Mar 2018, 7:14 pm   #6
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

A number of London Underground tube stations had them. I recall seeing the logos on the platform when I used to commute to central London.
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Old 17th Mar 2018, 7:16 pm   #7
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

A couple of historically relevant links:

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/th...of-the-rabbit/

and

http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/telepoint.php

[interesting in that it lists Phonepoint, Zonephone and Callpoint as the other even-less-well-remembered members of the "telepoint services" quadumbrate alongside Rabbit].

and

http://www.heritageandhistory.com/co...it-telephones/

Back in 2002 (it seems so long ago...) the BBC did an article on how Rabbit was dead-and-buried even then:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2175804.stm

I guess we can put Rabbit into the same 'busted flush' category as the 3D-TV hype from a few years back.
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Old 17th Mar 2018, 7:43 pm   #8
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

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I wonder what incentive the host proprietor was given.
Perhaps nothing more than attracting early-adopters to their premises? Clearly an advantage for consumer electronics retailers at least.
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Old 17th Mar 2018, 9:00 pm   #9
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

Mercury also had a telepoint system called Callpoint but I don’t know how many lines were on the base stations bur they were BT ones.
They had Callpoints in Shell garages and being a Mercury field engineer when I filled up my Mercury branded van I used to get accosted by the managers thinking I’d come to fix the callpoint because customers were complaining it didn’t work.

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Old 17th Mar 2018, 9:05 pm   #10
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

I recall Rabbit being marketed as "the phone box in your pocket" or something like that, this was at the time I used to carry a pager and a phonecard. The system could have become established if the cost of a proper mobile hadn't plumeted the way it did at the time.

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Old 17th Mar 2018, 10:22 pm   #11
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

I remember buying a Rabbitt receiver box from Greenweld in the early nineties for parts. I seem to remember a steel box within a box with a GRP top cover housing 2 small aerials.
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Old 17th Mar 2018, 10:58 pm   #12
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

It wasn't just the falling price of real mobile phones that finished off Rabbit and the other telepoint systems. They simply weren't very useful in the first place.

The Rabbit phone only allowed you to make calls at a telepoint. You couldn't receive any calls. The telepoints were mostly located at shops, railway stations etc. Those locations usually had public payphones nearby. So why carry a bulky handset around with you, when you could simply use a public payphone? The Rabbit had no great advantage - in fact it was a lot less useful, since there were far more public payphones than Rabbit telepoints. Also the rival telepoint companies like Mercury didn't allow 'roaming', i.e. Rabbit phones couldn't use Mercury telepoints or vice versa. Looking back, it's pretty obvious the whole idea was doomed from the start.

Lessons were learned. Hutchison Telecom, the company behind the Rabbit telepoints, went on to set up the highly successful Orange mobile phone network. And I believe some of the technology in the Rabbit phone was used in the DECT cordless phones still in use today. The Rabbit handsets could be used with a base station as home cordless phones, so were not totally useless after the telepoints were shut down.

Indeed, I still have a couple of Rabbit phones and base stations, bought long after the telepoint closure. The first one I used as a home cordless phone for a few years, then it stopped working. When I tried to connect to the base, the handset display says LINK then ERROR after a couple of seconds. I then bought a second system at a car boot sale, but the second handset was totally dead. I haven't really bothered trying to fix them, since used but working DECT cordless phones can be picked up for next to nothing at car boot sales.
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 12:01 am   #13
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

Although I never had one, they were actually quite useful in the absence of a proper mobile phone. I used to carry a pager when out and about, and when paged I would have to find a public phone and call in. This wasn't always easy even then, especially when driving. While the Rabbit system was operating, most corner shops had an access point, so you could just pull up outside one and make the call.

Of course, the arrival of small and cheap cellular phones made the system obsolete almost overnight. I remember Dixons selling off phones and base stations cheaply after the system closed (they made good domestic cordless phones).
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 6:55 am   #14
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

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I remember buying a Rabbitt receiver box from Greenweld in the early nineties for parts. I seem to remember a steel box within a box with a GRP top cover housing 2 small aerials.
Wasn't that the Zonephone base station? I still have one that I got from Greenweld.
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 9:03 am   #15
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

Fascinating snippettes of history emerging here: one thing I never fully understood though - if you were away-from-home and someone phoned your 'Rabbited' landline number, what happened? Presumably the home base-station was smart enough and knew it wasn't able to contact its handset, but then what?

Did it send some sort of recorded message/divert-to-an-answering-service, or did it just ring out?

Given the mention of "Rabbit pagers" in one of the articles upthread, I suspect there was some way for the system to send you a page to indicate you had a missed call - you presumably then had to find a zone with a Rabbit signal to call in and find out what was up?
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 10:24 am   #16
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

I had one of the early pre-production Zonephone ones, given to me by a friend who helped develop them. It consisted of a bare PCB with two short antennas sticking out of one side, plus a final-version handset. Connected to our telephone line it worked well as a simple cordless phone around the house. The only problem was its rather 'ungraceful' handling of poor reception. Instead of just muting and then recovering, it made some very loud clanging and popping sounds through the earpiece.
IIRC, it worked in the 860 MHz band. I scrapped it during a clearout a while back and now I wish I hadn't!
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 11:05 am   #17
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

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Presumably the home base-station was smart enough and knew it wasn't able to contact its handset, but then what?

Did it send some sort of recorded message/divert-to-an-answering-service, or did it just ring out?
Having simulated this scenario by 'phoning the base station with the handset switched off (which I assume should have the same effect), the base station simply rings as normal - so no sign of any such smartness. When the handset is operational (and within range), both it and the base station ring.

I think it was expected that one had a normal 'phone connected to the line as well, given that a socket doubler was included in the Rabbit pack.

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Given the mention of "Rabbit pagers" in one of the articles upthread, I suspect there was some way for the system to send you a page to indicate you had a missed call - you presumably then had to find a zone with a Rabbit signal to call in and find out what was up?
I haven't seen one of the pagers - mine is just the basic pack (minus a few of the extra bits) without a pager, so I'm not sure whether this was completely separate or whether it sent a paging signal via the Rabbit network. It is mentioned in the introductory video that came as part of the pack, so I'll watch this again taking particular notice of what is said on the subject.
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 12:45 pm   #18
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

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Wasn't that the Zonephone base station? I still have one that I got from Greenweld.
You may well be right, Tony. I still have the inner steel box somewhere that I built an amplifier inside.

I seem to remember that they were extremely well made.
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 3:06 pm   #19
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

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I had one of the early pre-production Zonephone ones, given to me by a friend who helped develop them. It consisted of a bare PCB with two short antennas sticking out of one side, plus a final-version handset. Connected to our telephone line it worked well as a simple cordless phone around the house. The only problem was its rather 'ungraceful' handling of poor reception. Instead of just muting and then recovering, it made some very loud clanging and popping sounds through the earpiece.
IIRC, it worked in the 860 MHz band. I scrapped it during a clearout a while back and now I wish I hadn't!
Andy, I mentioned Keith, G3RTU and his involvement with CT2 phones in the thread that split into this one. It that who you are referring to above?
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Old 18th Mar 2018, 3:16 pm   #20
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Default Re: Rabbit - the almost mobile telephone of bygone times

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I haven't seen one of the pagers - mine is just the basic pack (minus a few of the extra bits) without a pager, so I'm not sure whether this was completely separate or whether it sent a paging signal via the Rabbit network. It is mentioned in the introductory video that came as part of the pack, so I'll watch this again taking particular notice of what is said on the subject.
The video implies that it is a normal pager (activated by calling the "special" number) completely separate from the Rabbit network. What was being waved was a small black box looking very much like the pagers I've seen in the past. It was, however, supplied free until 31-03-1993 - time travel back 25 years not included!

On a separate point, one of the minus bits referred to above was the user manual. Simply as a matter of interest, does anyone know of a downloadable copy of this anywhere on t'internet? On this occasion, Google has not been my friend - just pointing me to lots of advice on looking after furry animals.
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