Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets

And something I've always wondered about is the use of multiple lines
> in countries outside of the US such as in Europe and in Asia. Often > I'd see numbers advertised or on signage on the order of 123456/7 > meaning that you could reach that business by dialing either 123456 or > 123457. Does this mean that these step-by-step/Strowger or other > electromechanical exchanges did not have trunk hunt and that this is > just a North American "invention." I can't think of any other reason > for listing for the public both numbers if they were sequential other > than the facility for automatic trunk hunt was not available.

Hunt groups were certainly used in the British PSTN when it was mostly SxS. All it took was suitable links on one bank of the final selector (connector) for it to hunt across subscriber lines in much the same way as any other type of selector would hunt for a free trunk.

It was quite common for a larger company to advertise its number as something like "REGent 2101 (8 lines)" People could still call on

2102, 2103, etc., but of course the hunting on busy would progress only forward from that line.

Businesses with just two or three lines did indeed advertise as, for example, "REGent 2101/2/3." Either they genuinely had consecutive but separate lines, or maybe in some cases whoever was in charge of advertising, letterheads, etc. didn't realize that the system would hunt and that "REGent 2101 (3 lines)" or simply "REGent 2101" would have been sufficient. Naturally, the former option would have made the company look more prestigious.

- Paul.

Re: Classic Six-Button Keysets - Cost During 1970s