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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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8th Jul 2021, 8:25 am | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 598
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Telephone with Mercury button
I recently bought an old Philips Pacephone which has a blue Mercury button. I guess its purpose was to press it before dialling the number in order to connect the phone to the Mercury network. How did the button work ? Did it send a tone or signal down the line or something else ? Thankyou.
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8th Jul 2021, 9:01 am | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,863
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
I think it dialled 131.
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8th Jul 2021, 10:00 am | #3 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 598
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Thanks Nick. Sounds likely. I assume the facility is obsolete now!
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8th Jul 2021, 1:38 pm | #4 |
Tetrode
Join Date: May 2020
Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK.
Posts: 82
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
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8th Jul 2021, 3:10 pm | #5 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
Posts: 2,039
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Yes I was there ( as Max Boyce used to say ). The 131 would then allow you to input your authorisation code, which would then give a secondary dial tone. This was 30 years ago.
Cheers Aub
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8th Jul 2021, 5:09 pm | #6 |
Nonode
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 2,511
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
I remember having a little Mercury box which the phone plugged in to.
Andy |
8th Jul 2021, 8:22 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,724
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
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.
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8th Jul 2021, 8:37 pm | #8 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 598
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Interesting stuff although it seems like a faff to connect to a rival telecoms operator. I didn't buy the phone for its past Mercury capabilities - I just liked the look of it and it was cheaper than an Interquartz 9825 'footprint'.
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8th Jul 2021, 10:11 pm | #9 |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,004
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
I've noticed a few manhole covers with the Mercury logo on the road where my current job is based.
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9th Jul 2021, 12:18 am | #10 | |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Manchester, UK.
Posts: 1,875
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Quote:
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9th Jul 2021, 8:08 am | #11 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,863
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
I think Mercury became One2One then T-mobile
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9th Jul 2021, 8:52 am | #12 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
Posts: 2,039
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
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
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9th Jul 2021, 8:55 am | #13 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Warsaw, Poland and Cambridge, UK
Posts: 2,679
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Quote:
Chris
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9th Jul 2021, 12:36 pm | #14 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Quote:
All history now. |
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9th Jul 2021, 4:25 pm | #15 |
Octode
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Newport, Gwent, UK.
Posts: 1,623
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
I'm still using this one every day.
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9th Jul 2021, 5:33 pm | #16 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 598
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Mine has begun to turn yellow as so many white plastics do. The phone itself is still otherwise in reasonable shape. I haven't pressed the Mercury button.
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9th Jul 2021, 7:02 pm | #17 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,007
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
"Lowest cost routing" was a big sales-point for the first alternative-to-BT telcos to emerge in the 1980s - I remember several of my clients had contracts with Mercury which included 'smart dialers' which basically recognised when someone at site A was calling someone at site B and prefixed the called number with the code to 'use Mercury not BT' - which essentially gave them free calls between the sites.
I used this to my advantage as a way to get [1200-baud] data-communications between the sites rather than renting EPS8/EPS25 circuits from BT. Some of these 'data' calls stayed up for weeks! |
9th Jul 2021, 7:48 pm | #18 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Stafford, Staffs. UK.
Posts: 2,532
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
Quote:
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9th Jul 2021, 10:44 pm | #19 |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,004
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
I remember they had Harry Enfield in their adverts, with his Mr Grayson & Mr Chumley-Warner characters.
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10th Jul 2021, 8:44 am | #20 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Duffort, Gers, France
Posts: 714
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Re: Telephone with Mercury button
I don't know about England but in Germany the alternative operators didn't provide billing pulses. The company I worked for allowed people to make personal calls which they were then charged for. It worked OK for Deutsche Telekom buy if you used an alternative operator the call apparently cost nothing although the company still had to pay the true cost. As the company had no way of working out what the call had really cost the only solution was to block everything except Deutsche Telekom.
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