Telephone connections

[n11xxy]

Hi, this might sound a bit of a weird question, but are the telephone points/connections in France the same as UK? we are moving over in the next couple of months and have recently bought some landline telephones and wondering if they can still be used in France, if not we might as well sell them rather than bring them over and not be able to use them.

Thank you

Mark

[nectarine]

no they are not, the French ones are much larger.  I have seen converters but, realistically, you can buy phones very cheaply now and they may work out cheaper than the converter plugs!  So sell them in England while you can, and go to one of the supermarkets over here to buy your French ones.

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

Nope, they're different. Old style French phone plugs are cumbersome things whereas the new ones use (IIRC) the same plugs as computer ethernet connectors. You can get adaptors to allow you to use a UK phone here -- look about halfway down this page for an old-style one:

   http://www.revealcable.co.uk/acatalog/Telephone_Country_Adapters.html

[Tim]

As you can see from the other replies, there may be a chance that your phone(s) will work over here.

I've got a couple working for friends by just changing the lead. If the phone has a socket on it and a B.T. plug on the other, there's a fair chance that you can change the lead for one with a French plug on it. No need for adapters.

I got the leads from a local electrical store and both have worked well. I did check before buying the leads, however, to avoid unnecessary expense as I already had one of this type of lead that ran from the old modem on my computer to the phone socket.

Maybe worth a try if you are determined to keep your phones - but no guarantee.

Regards - Tim

[AnOther]

Provided you can find a way to plug them in there is no technical reason for UK phones to not work in France.

At the end of the day it is only a game of 2 wires !

[n11xxy]

Thank you for replies, its not that they are expensive phones we have, so prob just as easy to sell them here in the UK and buy a cheap handset over in france.

thanks for advice and help

Mark

[Martin963]

@ Ernie - isn't the problem sometimes that "it's a game of three wires" in the UK?   I'm no expert but doesn't the "pirmary" box on a BT line (which must never be bypassed for this reason) act as a splitter for the 75 V 17 Hz ring voltage,  taking it onto pin 3 on the domestic wiring,  leaving audio on pins 2 & 5.

Whereas the French don't bother (audio et al on pins 1 & 3),  although pin 5 is often wired.

So if you use an older Brit phone which only rings via UK Pin 3 you're a bit stuffed in France because it doesn't ring.....    A lot of modern equipment however seems OK,  presumably because it picks up the ringing off pins 2 & 5 rather than requiring 75 V to drive a bell/sounder.

Ten years ago when we bought in France I made up several adaptors (ie Fench male to Brit socket (ie secondary wall box,  without the wall) and it worked fine

2 - 1

3 - 5

5 - 3

None of this lead-buying nonsence!

If anyone can clarify whether what I've written is correct I'd be grateful,  just from an academic point of vies.....

[gosub]

"Ten years ago when we bought in France I made up several adaptors (ie

Fench male to Brit socket (ie secondary wall box,  without the wall)

and it worked fine"

I haven't tried myself but if you can search the archives far enough back, there were some wiring diagrams posted on this site for doing just this.

[Danny]

here you go

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/569879/ShowPost.aspx

and more info here

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/573042/ShowPost.aspx

Danny

[AnOther]

I agree Martin there are options and variations, especially when it comes to extensions what with master and slave sockets etc., but at the end of the day, both in UK and France, there is but 1 pair of wires in use and as you say with the vast majority of modern phones this is all that is required.

Going back to the OP, unless your phones are something out of the ordinary then for what you're likely to get for them second hand in UK you might as well bring them over and and try them.

[bmt]

[quote user="ErnieY"]Going back to the OP, unless your phones are something out of the ordinary then for what you're likely to get for them second hand in UK you might as well bring them over and and try them.[/quote]

Definitely.  Most modern telephones will work anywhere in the world.

You will need to change the cord between the telephone (or base-station) and the wall socket.  If the existing cord has an RJ-11 connector (most likely), then something like this item is all you need.

[franco]

Our experience suggests that UK phones [and the re-chargeables batteries] are more robust.  We've got through three French cordless sets in the last few years  whilst a 15 yr old BT handset is still OK.   I'll be taking UK cordless Panasonics to France on my next trip.   You can buy the connecting wires from a brico-shed or even pick them up for peanuts at a vide grenier. 

regards

[AnOther]

I think you'll find that the vast majority of rechargeable batteries are produced in one of perhaps a handful of factories in the Far East and the only significant difference between any of them will be a particular sellers label [Www]

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="franco"]Our experience suggests that UK phones [and the re-chargeables batteries] are more robust.  We've got through three French cordless sets in the last few years  whilst a 15 yr old BT handset is still OK.   I'll be taking UK cordless Panasonics to France on my next trip.   You can buy the connecting wires from a brico-shed or even pick them up for peanuts at a vide grenier. 

regards


[/quote]

They are available in the bricos everywhere. I wouldn't even bother with a vide grenier you will save a € or 2, not worth the trouble?

I took our phone socket out of the wall, enlarged the hole behind it and fitted a modified U.K. ADSL filter in the hole, fitted an RJ45 (ethernet) wall socket over the hole and our phone is connected to that with an RJ11 plug at both ends of the cable. It is a MUCH neater connection than the bruddy awful French things and it is due to become the standard for the future with the old socket/plug being binned, so I have been told...