Pulse dialing query

[katylou]

Does nayone know whether Virgin Media support pulse dialing any more? The reason I ask is that I really want to buy a retro Rotary Dial telephone, that has been re-worked for modern use. The suppliers all state that the phones are compatable with BT lines and most cable suppliers that support Pulse or Rotary Dialing. I have a Virgin Media landline on the talk unlimited package. Ive looked on the virgin media site, but no joy. Dont suppose anyone on here might know?

[zing_deleted]

:welcome: I have no idea but someone should you could try calling tech sup ?

[on in an hour!]

Does nayone know whether Virgin Media support pulse dialing any more? The reason I ask is that I really want to buy a retro Rotary Dial telephone, that has been re-worked for modern use. The suppliers all state that the phones are compatable with BT lines and most cable suppliers that support Pulse or Rotary Dialing. I have a Virgin Media landline on the talk unlimited package. Ive looked on the virgin media site, but no joy. Dont suppose anyone on here might know?
you can use either tone or pulse in ex-C & W areas,i know this as ive been to 2 faults where sub complaining of noise on line when dialling!!!! :( tone being the 1 that crackles every No you dial.

[papa smurf]

yes you can use pulse or tbr in ex ntl[most modern phones have a switch on underside of phone with tbr-p so you can set it yourself]

[telephonesales]

I run a site selling old dial telephones at and would love to be able to find out from a postcode or telephone number if a customer can use pulse dialling. I would say that the vast majority of virgin media customers can still use pulse dialling (rotery dial) but my hart sinks when they say they are virgin media because I have no way of finding out myslf and after the customer has spent a couple of hours talking to people that have no idea what they are talking about or just say no to get rid of them I simply loose a sale. Many switch back to BT because I can tell them it works for sure. Please if anyone can tell me if how to get this info easily it will help both virgin media amd me.

[Jon T]

I run a site selling old dial telephones at and would love to be able to find out from a postcode or telephone number if a customer can use pulse dialling. I would say that the vast majority of virgin media customers can still use pulse dialling (rotery dial) but my hart sinks when they say they are virgin media because I have no way of finding out myslf and after the customer has spent a couple of hours talking to people that have no idea what they are talking about or just say no to get rid of them I simply loose a sale. Many switch back to BT because I can tell them it works for sure. Please if anyone can tell me if how to get this info easily it will help both virgin media amd me.

You need to look at stocking a device like this http://www.oldphoneworks.com/pulse-to-tone-converter.html

[Mr_Moo]

I found this with a quick google search (ironic how google chrome doesn't recognise 'google' as a correctly spelt word...) Anyway,

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=8794533

[Paul]

All VM exchanges should support pulse dialling - they use the same technology as BT.

[Mr_Moo]

And these technologies have been around for decades, long before 'digitone' was around.

[Paul]

Pretty much - I was installing the digital exchanges BT use 20 years ago.

[Mr_Moo]

I can confirm you CAN use pulse dialling phones on the VIRGIN/C&W/NTL/TELEWEST network. We tested one yesterday just to be 100% sure.

You can stop sending all our comanys business to the rivals now ;)

[EliotL]

Have you tried tapping with your existing phone?
This mimics pulse dialing, you just have to quickly tap the button on your phone that you use to hang up, tap once for 1, twice very quickly for 2, thrice for 3 and 10 for 0 etc... like you could try ringing the speaking clock on 123 by tapping to check if you have pulse dialing support!
I wouldn't try actually ringing someone like that as it takes ages and you have to try and tap 10 pulses per second!

[BenMcr]

Of course that doesn't work if you have a cordless phone ;)

[Matthew]

Might be worth checking this (http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/) site out.

[scooby-doo]

you can use pulse mode on virgin media network, but when you try to use these multi options menus e.g press 1 for faults press 2 for billing . etc... you may find that the network doesn't recognise the input. sometimes it works sometimes not.

trust me been there and done it. as soon as you change to tone dialing problem solved.

[AbyssUnderground]

Have you tried tapping with your existing phone?
This mimics pulse dialing, you just have to quickly tap the button on your phone that you use to hang up, tap once for 1, twice very quickly for 2, thrice for 3 and 10 for 0 etc... like you could try ringing the speaking clock on 123 by tapping to check if you have pulse dialing support!
I wouldn't try actually ringing someone like that as it takes ages and you have to try and tap 10 pulses per second!

I just tried this and it works :D

Also reminds me of someone saying "Whose idea was it to make the emergency services 999? It takes forever on a rotary dial phone! By the time it calls the person could be dead!"

Still, better than the IT Crowd's emergency services number... "0118 999 881 999 119 725 ... 3" :D

[BenMcr]

Also reminds me of someone saying "Whose idea was it to make the emergency services 999? It takes forever on a rotary dial phone! By the time it calls the person could be dead!"Going to be geeky here and point out it was because of pulse dialling that 999 was chosen for the emergency number ;)

[AbyssUnderground]

Going to be geeky here and point out it was because of pulse dialling that 999 was chosen for the emergency number ;)

I can see it wouldn't be too easy to accidentally dial :) It just doesn't make sense in other ways, as I explained :)

[BenMcr]

I can see it wouldn't be too easy to accidentally dial :) It just doesn't make sense in other ways, as I explained :)Hmm - it's actually not what I originally thought it was - well not totally

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_(emergency_telephone_number)

999 was chosen because of the need for the code to be able to be dialled from A/B button public telephones. The telephone dial (GPO Dial No 11) used with these coin-boxes allowed the digit "0" to be dialled without inserting any money, and it was very easy to adapt the dial to dial "9" without inserting money.

I always though it was because 999 was least likely to be dialled by the overhead telephone lines knocking together in the wind

[Ignitionnet]

Just learn to whistle the chords that tone dialling generates, job done.

[AntiSilence]

Just learn to whistle the chords that tone dialling generates, job done.

Or use a DTMF generator.

[Chris]

Have you tried tapping with your existing phone?
This mimics pulse dialing, you just have to quickly tap the button on your phone that you use to hang up, tap once for 1, twice very quickly for 2, thrice for 3 and 10 for 0 etc... like you could try ringing the speaking clock on 123 by tapping to check if you have pulse dialing support!
I wouldn't try actually ringing someone like that as it takes ages and you have to try and tap 10 pulses per second!

I was just about to suggest this. It was a great technique for getting round the dial lock my mate's stingy parents had on their phone many years ago. :D

[AntiSilence]

I was just about to suggest this. It was a great technique for getting round the dial lock my mate's stingy parents had on their phone many years ago. :D

It also used to fool some pay phones into not asking for payment too (the ones where you dial the number first and put the money in when the other person answers)... So I'm told lol

[mhl]

I have an old 300 series rotary (pulse) dial phone which has been fully restored and which I had hoped would work on my VM/NTL line - but it doesn't :( I get a dialling tone OK, but this remains there as I dial a number. Others on this thread are quite definite that it is possible to use a pulse dial phone on a modern line - so where am I missing a trick?

The old phone is very nice as an ornament/antique - but it would be even better if I could use it.

[Kymmy]

@ original OP.

You've already said that the phone is rotary dial that has been converted for modern usage (i.e it will support tone dialing only) so in essence you can use it on either pulse or tone networks

---------- Post added at 10:45 ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 ----------

I have an old 300 series rotary (pulse) dial phone which has been fully restored and which I had hoped would work on my VM/NTL line - but it doesn't :( I get a dialling tone OK, but this remains there as I dial a number. Others on this thread are quite definite that it is possible to use a pulse dial phone on a modern line - so where am I missing a trick?

The old phone is very nice as an ornament/antique - but it would be even better if I could use it.

It probably would help if you give your location as a VM staff member might be able to help you better if they are about

[Chris]

I'm speculating, but is the rotary dial moving at the correct speed? Can you get your hands on a basic touch-dial phone with a pulse/tone switch, and try dialling out from your line with that, set to pulse, just to confirm whether it's your line or your rotary phone that's causing the problem?

---------- Post added at 10:46 ---------- Previous post was at 10:45 ----------

@ Kymmy ... the original OP posted more than two years ago, he's probably not listening to you ;)

[Kymmy]

@ Chris

Your fault for not prodding me with that stick to wake me up!!!

Actually busy doing 4 things at one, really should learn to do the 5th thing like reading original dates :)

[Chris]

Your fault for swigging cask-strength Aberlour from the bottle, with or without the help of cheap Lidl cola ... ;)

[Kymmy]

Oi!!! that was a private conversation!!! No fair telling people that I drink cheap Lidl cola!!!

Gonna get you for that!!!

;)

[mhl]

I'm speculating, but is the rotary dial moving at the correct speed? Can you get your hands on a basic touch-dial phone with a pulse/tone switch, and try dialling out from your line with that, set to pulse, just to confirm whether it's your line or your rotary phone that's causing the problem?

Chris - I have run this test with an old tone/pulse switchable phone and the pulse dialling works OK. I have also confirmed with VM/NTL tech staff that their lines do support pulse. I have tried the old rotary phone on a neighbour's BT line and it worked perfectly. So I tried again on my NTL line and found that, if I drag the dial back rather than letting it return by itself, it will dial out. So it looks like a problem with the dial return speed as you suggested - NTL line would appear to require it to be a tad quicker.

[Chris]

Once upon a time, a mechanical exchange would just have sent your connection ratcheting its way up the switch, one hop at a time at whatever speed the pulses came at, within reason. That was how the engineers at the exchange could spot someone trying to tap-dial their way around the requirement to put money in a payphone - it was easy enough for their well-attuned ears to pick out the sound of a switch moving at a different speed to all the others.

These days, the exchanges are digital and it's software that recognises the pulses rather than a direct mechanical system. I would imagine the parameters set in NTL's exchange software are a little less tolerant than that used by BT. This probably isn't something the person who refurbished your phone took into account. You may be able to get the mechanism adjusted so it moves a bit faster. Maybe it just needs a little 3-in-1?

[Digital Fanatic]

Just as a side note here. Virgin Media lines can support pulse, but it is not Supported as far as faults are concerned. i.e. if a problem occurs with pulse and switching to tone fixes the issue.

VM recommend you use a tone handset if possible :)

[mhl]

Chris -
Phone was refurbished only recently by a retired BT engineer. So it doesn't need the 3-in-1, and he's going to talk me through adjusting the mechanism.

Digital Fanatic -
This old rotary/pulse phone is likely to be largely an ornament (a Xmas pressie for the missus) but it would satisfy my technological whim if it could be fully functional. I would expect all of our calls to be made with a modern tone phone because of all the "press x if you want Y" , and the fact that we have come to rely on cordless handsets - so we shouldn't screw up your VM/NTL line.

[telephonesales]

Yes pulse works on the majority of Virgin exchanges but not all. Unfortunatly I have no way of telling which ones work and no one to call and ask.

[AndyCalling]

Cripes! A zombie thread! Run, before it eats the brains of the other threads!