MM> G'morrow Bo,

Hmm, what kind of greeting is that?

 BS> Same in this country :) Our phones is still P&T passed
 BS> (Post og Telegraft, which is the direct translation).

 MM> :-)

 BS> rotary dialing means?

 MM> The phones had a rotary dial on the front; you stuck a finger in a 
 MM> hole labelled with the next digit, and wound it around to a stop 
 MM> escapment where you extracted your finger;  the mechanism then 
 MM> reversed itself to its original position, generating an appropiate 
 MM> number of pulses.

Ahh :) I know that "technoligy", I were just not familear with
the english word for it. Today there is some emulating equtment on all
phone stations in this country, for interpreting pulses.

 MM> At the exchange, cascades of rotary switches turned as instructed 
 MM> by your pulses, eventually connecting you to the line you needed 
 MM> to call.  All very impressive in its day,  and still worth 
 MM> watching if one ever  gets the chance to see such history in 
 MM> motion....

Yes I know so. :)

 BS> Oh! I bet we did do that several years before that, but I
 BS> assume the rest of NZ did also do it several years before.

 MM> Yup - but only just...

 BS> The Telco do still have the same problems anyhow :)

 MM> :-)

 BS> Sattelite for broadband.. ISDN isn't specifically designed
 BS> for broadbandings, you do get 2 x 64 kps channels + 16 kps
 BS> data channel. No delay in calling, and a fixed CONNECT on
 BS> 64000 (nearly a fixed CPS too ~ 8000).

 MM> Yes - Telecom NZ calls it `Jetstream' or somesuch, but we keep 
 MM> away;  being ex-Army Signals and old Fidonetters, we tend to read 
 MM> and write off-line, spending as little time online to anything as 
 MM> is possible.

Yes. :) Fidonet transfers can being done just fine my using ISDN, just use
a extra initstring. Then my ISP is down or my feeds ISP is down, I'm using
ISDN to get mail from my feed. I did just add "ATB00" to the init
string, and then it works like a normal modem.

ATB00 tells my Zyxel Terminal Adapter (read: ISDN Modem), that it shall use
the X.75 protocol which originally was designed for packet switched
networks.

Like X.25 afaik, if it ever has been used down there? We use it today for
electronic payment terminals.

 BS> In this country we are charged per minute, even for calling the
 BS> nighbour.

 MM> In my English youth before WW2, all calls cost tuppence (two 
 MM> pennies for latecomers);  I wasn't allowed out of the house 
 MM> without showing I had my emergency pennies safe in a pocket...
 MM> Having free local calls is a NZ icon to me.

Aha. :) Europe, Asia and Africa is the only continents where local calls is
charged per minut.

Bo


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