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"British" ATA?

tim.jtq

Super Pro Member
Hi Everyone

Does anyone here know of an ATA (either built into a router or standalone) that exactly replicates the British experience of making and receiving analogue phone calls?

I will explain what I mean by this.

In America and other countries, the dial tone is just a continuous sinusoidal tone. However, the British dial tone is a sort of "brrrrr" noise if you know what I mean. (It is difficult to describe it exactly.)

In America and other countries, when the phone rings, the bell is continuously on just once for a while and then continuously off for a while and it then repeats. However, in Britain the bell does a sort of double ring and is then continuously off for a while and it then repeats.

Thank you very much.
 
Now this is not something I have tried, but I do recall that on Grandstream ATA's you could actually tweak the relevant settings for System Ring Cadence and Call Progress Tones under the 'Advanced Settings' page of the webUI. A quick Google shows that somebody managed to do this in Australia, which may be similar to the UK's tone:

 
If the VoIP provider supports early media, then the call progress tones are generated by the network of the called party, so you should hear GPO tones if you call a UK landline number.
Only the "brr" would need to be generated by the ATA
 
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I hear the built in ATA on the BT Smart Hub 2 is configured for UK specification :)

However most quality ATAs do provide the means for you to endlessly adjust tones, impedances (there are electrical differences too) and ringing cadences to your preferences, it's just that the US style is often programmed as the default.
 
Wikipedia claims that UK dial tone is a 350Hz tone and a 450Hz tone simultaneously. It has been 15 years since I bought/used a Linksys/Sipura ATA, but back then it was possible to specify quite a lot of tone detail.
 
I've used various ATA's over the last 15 years, never noticed any difference in tones.
 
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Thank you everyone for your replies.

@father_ted, I think that the two simultaneous frequencies that you have mentiond must be what creates the "brrrrr" noise I mentioned. Thank you for this.

Thank you, @Daveoc64, very much for the link. The relevant part of the document is as follows:

System Ring Cadence: c=400/200-400/2000;
Dial Tone: f1=350@-19,f2=440@-22,c=0/0;

I have four questions:

1. Am I correct that "c=400/200-400/2000" means ring for 400ms, silent for 200ms, ring for 400ms, silent for 2000?

2. I think that "f2=440" is a mistake and should have been "f2=450". Am I correct?

3. What does "@-19" and "@-22" mean?

4. Am I correct that "c=0/0" means continuous?

Thank you very much.
 
I have four questions:

1. Am I correct that "c=400/200-400/2000" means ring for 400ms, silent for 200ms, ring for 400ms, silent for 2000?

2. I think that "f2=440" is a mistake and should have been "f2=450". Am I correct?

3. What does "@-19" and "@-22" mean?

4. Am I correct that "c=0/0" means continuous?

Thank you very much.
  1. Yes, I think that's correct. That's the pattern a UK phone line would use.
  2. Yes, I think you are correct. 440 is the US tone.
  3. I'm not too sure to be honest.
  4. I think so, but again, not 100% sure!
 
  1. Yes, I think that's correct. That's the pattern a UK phone line would use.
  2. Yes, I think you are correct. 440 is the US tone.
  3. I'm not too sure to be honest.
  4. I think so, but again, not 100% sure!
Thank you, @Daveoc64, very much for your answers and sorry for the delay in thanking you. I have been very busy in the last couple of days.

I have another apology to make to you. Due to a glitch in my browser, I think I may have accidentally liked and unliked your post a few times. (You may have seen this in your notifications and wondered what was going on.) It should now be left as liked.

I have actually found the answers to Questions 3 & 4 on the following page:


"@-19" and "@-22" are volumes and "c=0/0" does indeed mean continuous.
 
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