Why is Q absent from telephone keypads...
Arturo Camacho
Why #1 doesn't have letters on it?.
Any Idea???
TX in advance,
Arturo Camacho
Please repost here, I don't have direct e-mail address yet...
Mark J. Cuccia
1940's. It was associated with '0' (Zero).
This thread was here a few weeks back, BTW!
ZENITH numbers (a predecessor to Toll-Free 800)- you dialed 0(Zero) for
operator and asked for 'Zenith 1234' or 'Zenith 248' or 'Zenith 56789'.
She would look up in her charts (or check with Rate & Route) and get a
standard telephone number (or routing) and place the call, reversed
charges (collect) without getting verification- Manual-Toll-Free-
Just in case someone actually tried to DIAL OUT the Z in Zenith, they
would instead go to their local operator, which they were supposed to
call anyway.
ALSO, you NEVER dial O (oh) for Operator - that would be dialing '6'.
You dial ZERO for Operator (at least here in North America). So, if you
dial the 'Z' in zero, you still get the operator.
Q is a rather little used letter in the alpahbet - Most every word
beginning with Q also has the letter U after the Q - QUick, QUack, QUake,
QUiet, etc. NOT TOO MANY Exchange digits from the words beginning with Q.
YES, Q COULD be the second letter, but I think that Bell did a rather
good job of letter assignments and numbering plan assignments back in the
late-teens/early '20's when dial service was being planned/introduced in
major metro areas.
Q HAS been put on the '1' digit on many OEPRATOR keypads - before
automated customer entry of their calling-cards, the operator would look
it up in a chart to see if valid, or key into a database. The calling
card numbers back then were more of an account number rather than a
telephone-number+PIN. The account numbers were composed of letters and
digits. Q was one of them.
In a customer dialing experiment in the late 70's/early 80's, Bell tested
customer entry of their calling cards in some locations. A picture of the
touch-tone payphone shows a card posted above the payphone stating
something like 'If your calling card has Q, enter 1; if your calling card
has Z, enter 0'.
AGAIN, in the UK, 6=MN and 0=O (letter oh). The operator is NOT 0 (Zero)
In France (at least in Paris, back in the days of exchange names), 6=MN
and 0=O(oh) and Q.
Other countries (such as Russia, Australia, Denmark, etc) used different
arrangements of letters to numbers - and Russia used their OWN alphabet.
I think that Denmark had some special Germanic/Nordic letters as well.
(Sweden arranges their numbers as 0 thru 9, i.e. 0 gives one dialpulse, 8
gives nine pulses, 9 gives 10 dialpulses; New Zealand arranges their
numbers in REVERSE - I don't remember if it is 0, 9, 8, ..., 1 or if it
is 9, 8, 7, ..., 1, 0. but this has become more meaningless today with
touch tone, an INTERNATIONAL STANDARD)
SOME applications which tell you to spell out a name have 1 for Q and Z
since 0 will usually cut you thru to their main switchboard. These are
NOT standardized.
I also have seen some privately owned payphones showing Q and Z on the 1.
Fritz Whittington
>AR>Does anybody knows why Q and Z were left off the telephone keypads?.
>Q looks too much like O and Z looks too much like 5 or S. Bell did LOTS
>of tests of different dials and picked this one as the least error
>prone.
and 1 looks a lot like I, too, but they kept the I.
>AR>Why #1 doesn't have letters on it?.
>Not sure except since the letters were for the area exchange name and no
>number started with 1, I guess they weren't needed.
Now you're on the right track. Before there were dial telephones, you
in the very beginning picked up the phone, got the operator, and asked
for someone by name. As the system grew, they had to do something else,
like number the lines on the switchboard and assign everybody a phone
number. Then when the operator answered you had to give her the number
instead.
Now, they knew people wouldn't like this very much, so they wanted to
keep the numbers small, so they were easier to remember. Four digits
seemed about right, and that gave you almost 10000 numbers. But if
there were more subscribers in a town than that you had to divide the
place up into smaller areas, and then give the operator the area name as
well as the four digits. They used area names that matched the
neighborhood names in the city, whatever most of the people called an
area. So in Manhattan, you might ask for "Central Park 7284" to call
someone who lived around Central Park, or "Harlem 3627", etc.
Likewise, if you were in Chicago and wanted that last number, you'd have
to get the LD operator and tell her "New York City, Harlem 3627".
When the Phone Company decided to go to the dial system, they knew that
eventually they would want people to be able to dial long-distance as
well as local. Due to the limitations of telephone switching equipment
that they had at the time and could envision, they needed to reserve
numbers that started with "1" to mean that a long-distance number was
being dialed. Likewise, "0" would always get you the operator. So no
local phone number could start with a 1 or a 0.
They still didn't want to go over four digits, though, BUT they needed
at least six. They figured that people who remembered a number as
"Harlem 3627" would be happier to dial HA and 3627, instead of 42 and
3627.
So, if you had placed ABC on the 1 dial-position, and GHI on the 3
dial-position, you could still dial HA 3627 (really 31 3627). BUT, you
wouldn't be able to dial CE 7284 for your friend in Central Park,
because a number couldn't start with a "1". Placing ABC at 1 would have
meant that all the "neighborhood" names that started with an A or B or C
could not be used. So they started with 2. Now, you've only got 8 keys
with three letters each = 24 letters. They figured Q and Z were the
least likely to be needed (even Queens had too many people to be just
one area).
Of course, now they've managed to train everyone to remember 10-digit
phone numbers, so the letters are only good for things like
1-800-RED-ROSE (or is it 1-800-FLOWERS?)
--
Fritz Whittington Texas Instruments, P.O. Box 655474, MS 446 Dallas, TX 75265
Shipping address: 13510 North Central Expressway, MS 446 Dallas, TX 75243
fr...@ti.com Office: +1 214 995 0397 FAX: +1 214 995 6194
Since I am not an official TI spokesperson, these opinions contain no spokes.
jdu...@interstellar.com
AR>Does anybody knows why Q and Z were left off the telephone keypads?.
Q looks too much like O and Z looks too much like 5 or S. Bell did LOTS
of tests of different dials and picked this one as the least error
prone.
AR>Why #1 doesn't have letters on it?.
Not sure except since the letters were for the area exchange name and no
number started with 1, I guess they weren't needed.
AR>Any Idea???
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Durand | tel: +1 408 356-3886 | The future is a race
Durand Interstellar, Inc. | fax: +1 408 356-4659 | between education and
Los Gatos, California, USA | jdu...@interstellar.com | catastrophe. H.G.Wells
Dave Neel
>From: Arturo_...@together.org (Arturo Camacho)
>Subject: Why is Q absent from telephone keypads...
>Date: 29 Jun 1995 12:06:04 GMT
>Does anybody knows why Q and Z were left off the telephone keypads?.
>Why #1 doesn't have letters on it?.
>Any Idea???
Welp, exchanges used to be given names (easy to remember?) such as
Walker- One's number would be WAlker 90079 (WA9-0079 = 929-0079).
Phone numbers don'y start with '1' or '0' , so 8 numerals x 3 letters = 24 out
of 26. (I guess Q and Z were deemed to be the most useless :) )
Dave Neel
dn...@epix.net
John Boteler
I think Q was last seen on Deep Space 9, so he is
far away from your telephone keypad right now.
--
finger bo...@access.digex.net for PGP key to encrypt email to me.
BUBEYE!
>When the Phone Company decided to go to the dial system, they knew that
>eventually they would want people to be able to dial long-distance as
>well as local. Due to the limitations of telephone switching equipment
>that they had at the time and could envision, they needed to reserve
>numbers that started with "1" to mean that a long-distance number was
>being dialed.
Actually, the reservation of '1' had a more pragmatic reason. In those
days, all phones used pulse dials which could be mimicked by flashing
the switch hook. When your grandmother would pick up the phone to call
her physician, her jittery hand might drop the handset before getting
a good grip on it. This would generate a pulse and be interpreted by the
then-new stepper as the subscriber dialing '1'. Of course this would also
break the dial tone, but grandma's hearing wasn't so great and besides she
never put the earpiece next to her hearing aid until after she had dialed.
She would proceed to dial the doctor's 3-7 digits, but since there was
no such number as 1-XXXX..., she would always hear the amplified voice
of a helpful and always female recording admonishing her to try the call
again.
Interestingly, this is also why no letters were assigned to the 0 or 1.
Bell Labs knew, of course, that DDD was coming.
Since no exchange name could be dialed with a 0 or 1 (because no letters
were assigned to them), this "grandma effect" wouldn't unleash a flood
of undesired 1+ toll calls across the country from confused but otherwise
lovable telephone subscribers seeking advice from their trusted physicians.
Andrew Emmerson
They weren't! At least not over here in Europe they weren't...
This subject has been covered previously but in a nutshell, both Q and Z
_were_ present in telephone dials in North America and both were
positioned next to digit zero. Q was used in Canada (Manitoba I recall)
or rather it was placed on the dial for future purposes but was never
used. Z was used to trap calls to Zenith numbers (operator-controlled
call forwarding). You were supposed to dial 0 and ask for the Zenith
number you wanted but as a lot of people tried to dial ZEN, it made sense
to put the Z on the dial. By putting it on digit 0, anyone who dialled Z
etc. got connected straight to the operator.
In Europe Q and Z are on telephone keypads in France, again on the digit
zero. In Paris they had an exchange called Roquette for which users
dialled ROQ plus the four digits of the number. In Britain we added the
letter Q to our dials as well, to accommodate international subscriber
dialling to Paris. Since then both France and Britain have dropped letter
dialling in normal numbers but France maintains letters in toll-free
advertising numbers, so many phones still have letters on the keypad.
They added Z for the sake of completeness.
Many mobile phones also have Q and Z on the keypad, again against digit
zero if they follow the correct pattern.
Mark J. Cuccia
days, a preliminary pluse (or dialing 1) would be 'absorbed'. In many
local step regions, the service codes for Repair, Business-Office,
Long-Distance, Information, Party-Line Reverting (Ring-Back), etc. were
of the form 11X. The initial '1' would be absorbed in the first-selector
switch, and the second '1' would be switched from the first-selector over
to a 'first-level, second-selector' switch reserved for 'special codes'
or 'service codes' or 'miscellaneous codes'. The 'general' or 'standard'
assignments of these codes were (altho' not always the same everywhere):
111,,,,, (each subsequent 1 after the first two 11's were absorbed in the
misc.codes selector switch until something OTHER than 1 was dialed)
112+ ACCESS to the #4XB DDD Toll (where DDD was available)
113 Information (Directory Assistance)
114 Repair Service
115 Mobile/Marine/Conference/etc. 'Leave-Word' recording operator
116 'COUNTY' operator (for rural manual ring-down points near/outside of
the town)
117 Testboard
118+ Party Line Ring Back for 4 and 8 (and 10?) party lines
119(+1) 2-party line ring back
110 Long Distance Operator
Around 1960 or so, most step (and some crossbar/panel) areas using 11X
codes began to use 1+ for DDD and change their 11X codes to N11 codes.
Some codes were changes to 7-digit local numbers (not everywhere changed
Repair from 114 to 611 - New Orleans changed repair from 114 to 870-1122)
or some other misc. codes for party line reverting ring-back and other
'secret telco test numbers'. This conversion process was not a splash
cut everywhere - not even within any single area - Some localities used a
MIXTURE of 11X and N11 service codes until the mid 60's - some even into
the 70's (and independent territory might STILL even use 11X codes in
their ESS/Digital switching areas).
11+ is PRESENTLY recommended as a substitute for the '*' (star) button
for custom-calling and CLASS/Call-Management features
(*70=1170:Cancel-Call-Waiting, *67=1167:block-caller-ID,
*72=1172:Activate-Call-Forwarding, etc). Rotary/Pulse lines & phones need
to use the 11+ but EVEN Touch-Tone lines can use 11+ (there STILL might
even be some 10-button touch-tone phones from the early-60's out there
still in service, without the * and # buttons).
Back to the 'preliminary pulse' in OLD step offices (and possibly even
crossbar/panel) - the initial '1' was absorbed/ignored - If you
accidently flashed your hookswitch while lifting the receiver hanging
alongside the post of the phone (I'm talking about the 'candlestick'
phones), you could in many areas continue to dial the 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7
digit local number - the number would be completed, the initial flashing
pulse would have been absorbed -
If you wanted to call information 113, and you accidently flashed, you
would actually have been dialing 1113, but still get to information. (see
the explanation of 111... in the 11X chart above).
Mark J. Cuccia
mcu...@law.tulane.edu
Maurice Nunas
> In article <165990301...@together.org> Arturo_...@together.org (Arturo Camacho) writes:
> >From: Arturo_...@together.org (Arturo Camacho)
> >Subject: Why is Q absent from telephone keypads...
> >Date: 29 Jun 1995 12:06:04 GMT
>
> >Does anybody knows why Q and Z were left off the telephone keypads?.
> >Why #1 doesn't have letters on it?.
>
> Welp, exchanges used to be given names (easy to remember?) such as
> Walker- One's number would be WAlker 90079 (WA9-0079 = 929-0079).
> Phone numbers don'y start with '1' or '0' , so 8 numerals x 3 letters = 24 out
> of 26. (I guess Q and Z were deemed to be the most useless :) )
>
For what it is worth, I have a Northern Telecom Meridian set on my desk.
It has the Q and the Z on the zero button.
- Maurice Nunas
from the land of endless summer
David Breneman
I've got an AT&T 7406 Plus on my desk with Q on the 7 key and Z on the 9 key.
Those two keys look awfully crowded.
--
David Breneman
Unix System Administrator Mail: david.b...@mccaw.com
IS - Operations (soon to be ~@attws.com)
McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. Phone: +1-206-803-7362
Tom Billone
>
>In article <dneel.25...@epix.net>, dn...@epix.net (Dave Neel)
wrote:
>> >Why #1 doesn't have letters on it?.
>>
>It has the Q and the Z on the zero button.
>
I have an AT&T telephone and I have the Q on 7 and the Z on 9. When I
worked for the telephone company, as we were called before the misery of
divestiture, we were told why there was no appearance of Q and Z but that
was a long time ago.
Tom Billone
Global Communications
Lee Winson
A "Q" on the 7? What letters are on your other keys?