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France Telecom payphone buttons explained by Christopher Daniels

twenty buttons! twenty!     This is a picture of the most commonly deployed payphone in Paris at the moment (there are, I guess, five or six different models in general use).

1 2 ABC 3 DEF
4 GHI 5 JKL 6 MN 
7 PRS 8 TUV 9 WXY
* 0 OQZ #
The middle twelve buttons are entirely conventional.

The top left button (icon: two flags and an arrow) is to change the language used in the LCD display. The phone knows five: French (DECROCHEZ), English (PLEASE LIFT RECEIVER), German (BITTE ABHEBEN), Spanish (DESCUELGUE) and Italian (SGANCIARE).

The green button below it is, according to the instructions in the booth, to "send a message to your correspondent". I have no idea how this works.

UPDATE, 7-25-00
David E Newton, from London, England, writes:
Basically, when you press this, it lets you record a message, takes 5 units off your phonecard (Télécarte) (about 5 francs) and then will try to phone your intended recipient every (x) minutes for a total of (y) times (excluding whatever it thinks are "impolite" hours to call (I think maybe 11pm-8am).)

I don't know what x and y are, but I think x might be every 15 minutes.

I used it once, but I can't remember if it worked. I don't think people use it much.

Cheers
dave

Below that is "BIS", to redial the last number, and below that (set apart from the others) is a button that allows you to disconnect and start a new call without hanging up the receiver, which would force you to remove your card. This saves you the time the phone takes to initially read your card and, if you are using a credit card, lets you pay for multiple calls with one transaction.

The top right button (icon: an open book) and the one below it (MEM) are for users of France Telecom smartcards: the MEM button lets you record a number on the card with an alphanumeric label; the "book" button lets you dial a number from your card's list.

The button below that one is the volume control.

The last button (bottom right) is unused.

 

France payphone numbers
France Telecom RealAudio: A speaking clock · Ringing
Sounds added by Christopher Daniels

 

This compilation copyright 1995-2004, Mark Thomas. All rights reserved worldwide.