unapproved phone equipment ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. Is it legal in Britain to connect unapproved equipment to a BT line? What about ntl, telelwest etc? Is it legal to sell such equipment? It is properly engineered of course.

A. Legal to sell, with suitable warnings that it is illegal to connect to any public network. If it is properly engineered then why not get it approved! A fireman subject to being 'on call' or emergency/backup etc. complained his phone frequently did not ring. Lengthy and concerned investigation by telephone company finally revealed his two sons had each obtained a 'free phone' in connection with magazine subscriptions they had purchased from a well known publisher/distributor in another country. These phones were sometimes plugged in sometimes not! The two 'extra' phones were of such low standard that they cut down the ringing signal so that neither they or the parent/fireman's phone would ring! A lot of time was wasted and there was a potential hazard since the fireman could not respond when on call or standby! Thereafter those subscription phones were referred to here as "El cheapos!". Local rules at one time were that 'all' phones etc. had to be leased from the telco. Then it was changed to 'one main phone to be leased from telco'. Nowadays 'none' have to be leased or provided by telco; but in the event of problems customer may have to pay minimum charge/hourly fee if fault is not in telco line or equipment. Yes, provided that (for consumer equipment) it has the statutory Approved or Prohibited labels (green circle or red triangle) label - or nowadays, the 'CE' mark (which is, of course, meaningless in itself.) Probably not, but no one cares anymore. If you take the whole exchange down you might get sued. Or your line disconnected, or the kit confiscated. Nobody seems to have asked why the equipment has to be approved. The prime reason is to protect the Telco's equipment and staff from interference, damage, destruction, injury or death. If the equipment is powered from the mains, and for some reason it connects mains voltage to the telephone line (insulation breakdown, poor design, mains power surge, etc) think about the following. A technician working up the top of a ladder on exchange equipment receives a shock, falls of the ladder and is seriously injured, A lineman up a pole working on bare wires. Shock, either falls, or passes out and has to be rescued for the pole top. A cable jointer working in a manhole (these are usually very wet) gets a shock, and again needs to be rescued. In Australia the penalty was something like A$12,000 and confiscation of the equipment and everything connected to it. When modems became readily availably you could pick up a el cheapo at a swap meet. Now if you were caught connecting it to a telephone line you faced the loss of the modem, the computer, monitor, printer ...... Get the picture.

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