[VoIP] Rheinigidale 1

[Ian Jolly]

The UK's last single digit telephone number lives again!

Not many will realise that this number was in service in the UK's public telephone network until c1991.  Only once it was automated, was British Telecom able to say that their network was fully automatic.  

The line was only ever accessible via the Operator.  

Dial the Operator on 100 (if you've set it up on your Asterisk) or +44100 from Overseas and when 'Ethel' asks 'Number Please'   say  "Rheinigidale 1"  and hopefully you'll be put through.  It seems to be about 95% accurate.  If she doesn't recognise you first time, you should get a second chance.

Not only has the number been 'preserved' but the person who answers will be the person whose house it was in !   Can't get better preservation than that?   She is available 24/7 to answer your calls.

This the location of Rheinigidale http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=57.922278&lon=-6.682643&z=10.6&r=0&src=msl  and it is only in recent years that a proper road has been built to the village - previously it was only accessible by a track over the mountains.  The original telephone worked over a VHF radio link to the mainland and the line was then extended to the auto-manual switchboard at Inverness some 100+ miles away.

The audio comes from a BBC Radio programme made in 2004 called "The Secret Life of Telephone Numbers".  It was to have been a 5 minute long 'filler' but after talking to the the producer, I convinced him that there was a little more to telephone numbers and it became a half hour long programme!  It also included the sound track from the video I took during the change-over of the UK's public networks last Electro-Mechanical Exchange on the UK's most remote inhabited island - http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=60.227104&lon=-2.175248&z=7&r=0&src=ol  (The tiny island way to the west of the Shetland Islands)  I hope before too long to have the exchange connected to CNET).

Ian Jolly