Goodbye to copper? [Telecom]

Of course not. There are versions for networks with ITU rather than North American signalling. But those aren't what's installed all over the US and Canada.

R's, John

Yup. Switches *optimized* for the NANP market are -not- directly usable elsewhere. Other -- significantly more expensive -- versions of the hardware

*and* software are optimized differently, and _are_ usable/sold internationally.

OTOH, the 'international' market _doesn't_ have all the LNP 'silliness' to deal with, and _that_ portion of the code can be eliminated on 'international' builds.

Equipment with the 3+3+4 assumption 'built in' can be built _significantly_ less expensively than the more generalized model. "Hard-coded" decision trees (those of known and *fixed* size) can be much faster than those which have to handle a varying number of branches. On that particular task, the CPU requirements for a fully generalized version can be an order of magnitude higher than a hard-coded one. This doesn't hold for _everything_ in the system, of course, but you do end up needing a substantially faster CPU -- and often more space for the 'stored program control' as well -- which drives the cost up.

For some strange reason, C.O. switch -buyers- in the U.S. strongly prefer the

3+3+4 optimized models, at least when _their_ check-book is involved. *grin*

Somehow, I suspect different standards for outside-the-USA telephone hardware (codecs and line characteristics), line behavior (ringing, supervision) and "proprietary considerations" (i.e. tariff and other barriers to protect local equipment vendors) has a much stronger effect on relative costs of CO equipment...

Are you sure? In most European countries you can port mobile numbers among carriers, and in the UK I'm pretty sure you can port landlines between BT and the cable companies.

R's, John

Yes - and between providers who use logical access, and who put their own telelphony equipment in BT exchanges (several big providers and

100s in total). Porting back to BT can be harder though...

Same thing is supported in mobile number ranges as well, and for non geographic numbers.

more than you ever wanted to know about UK numbers: