Telephone keypad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A telephone keypad is a keypad that appears on a "touch tone" telephone. It was standardised when the Dual-tone multi-frequency system was introduced, and replaced the rotary dial.
The keypad is laid out in a 3×4 matrix, with each row representing a low frequency, and each column representing a high frequency. When used to dial a telephone number, pressing a single key such as '1' will send a tone consisting of two sinusoids of frequencies 697 and 1209 hertz (Hz).
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 697 Hz |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 770 Hz |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 852 Hz |
| * | 0 | # | 941 Hz |
| 1209 Hz | 1336 Hz | 1477 Hz |
The "*" is called the star or asterisk key. The "#" is called the number sign, pound key or hash key, depending on one's nationality or personal preference. These can be used for special functions. For example, in the UK, users can order a 7.30am alarm call from a British Telecom telephone exchange by dialling: *55*0730#.
Most of the keys also bear letters according to the following system:
0 = none 1 = none 2 = ABC 3 = DEF 4 = GHI 5 = JKL 6 = MNO 7 = P(Q)RS 8 = TUV 9 = WXY(Z)
These letters have had several auxiliary uses. Originally, the letters referred to exchanges. In the US in the mid-20th century, numbers were seven digits long including a two-digit prefix, the latter expressed as letters rather than numbers. In the UK telephone numbering system, a similar two-letter code was added after the initial zero to form the first part of the Subscriber trunk dialling code for that region - for example, Aylesbury was assigned 0AY6 which translated into 0296. (The majority of these original numbers have remained, particularly in the rural areas. The modern equivalent of 0AY6, namely 01296, still refers to Aylesbury.)
The letters have also been used, mainly in the U.S., as a way of remembering telephone numbers easily. For example, an interior decorator might license the phone number 1-800-724-6837 but advertise it as the more memorable 1-800-PAINTER.
Sometimes advertisers will advertise a number with a mnemonic word in the number that has more letters than there are digits in the phone number. Usually, this means that you just stop dialing at 7 digits after the area code or that the numbers are ignored by the switchboard.
In recent times, the letters on the keys have found a new use thanks to text messaging on mobile phones.
[edit] Letter Mapping
When designing or selecting a new phone, publishing or using phonewords, you must be aware that there have been multiple standards for the mapping of letters to numbers on telephone keypads over the years.
Some keypads have assigned the letters O and Q (missing from the original Bell System keypads) to the 0 (zero) key, most notably done in the UK.
The keypad pictured above is mapped according to the current international standard. The ITU established an international standard (ITU E.161) in the mid-1990s, and that should be the layout used for any new devices.
[edit] See also
The first two letters of the 7-digit telephone number in the U.S. used to refer to the name of the exchange, which was often named after the street on which the exchange office was located. The most famous of these is probably the PEnnsylvania exchange, from the Glen Miller song Pennsylvania 6-5000, which was the telephone number for the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. For more information, see Telephone Exchange Names.
