Telephone plug

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A modular connector plug (6P6C) and socket (6P4C).

A telephone plug is a type of male connector used to connect a telephone to the telephone wiring in a home or business, and in turn to a local telephone network. It is inserted into its female counterpart, a telephone "jack", commonly fixed to a wall or baseboard. The standard for telephone plugs varies from country to country, though the RJ11 "modular connector" has become by far the most common.

A connection standard, such as "RJ11", specifies not only the physical connector, but how it is wired (the "pinout"). Modular connectors are specified for the Registered Jack series of connectors, as well as for Ethernet and other connectors, such as 4P4C (4 position, 4 contacts) modular connectors, the de facto standard on handset cables, often improperly referred to as "RJ connectors".

Contents

[edit] History

Bell system line cord as used in the mid 1960s

Historically the telephone was often owned by the supplier and permanently wired in to the telephone line they supplied but as phone markets became more deregulated there was a need for a simple plug-in interface that consumers could use. Many countries initially used their own connectors. For example Bell System companies in the 1960s used a round plug about 40mm in diameter with four prongs about 15mm apart. National connectors remain in service but few are used for new installations.

[edit] List of connections

On a conventional wired telephone, there are 4 connections, each of which may be hardwired, but more often uses a plug and socket:

telephone line to phone cable
The wall jack. This connection is the most standardized, and often regulated as the boundary between an individual's telephone and the phone network.
phone cable to phone base
This and further connections is generally not regulated, but instead has de facto standards. It is often 6P4C, which is often RJ11, but may be proprietary or hardwired.
phone base to handset cable
handset cable to handset
The last two (the handset cable) has a de facto standard of a 4P4C connector with straight through cable.

Some of these may be absent:

  • Wired telephones may not have a separate base and handset,
  • the defining characteristic of wireless telephones is that they do not have a handset cable, and
  • the defining characteristic of mobile telephones is that they do not have a phone cable.

[edit] Wiring

A standard specifies both a physical connector and how it is wired. Sometimes the same connector is used by different countries but wired in different ways.

For example, telephone cables in the UK typically have a BS6312 (UK standard) plug at the wall end and a 6P4C or 6P2C modular connector at the telephone end: this latter may be wired as per the RJ11 standard (with pins 3 and 4), or it may be wired with pins 2 and 5, as a straight through cable from the BT plug (which uses pins 2 and 5 for the line, unlike RJ11, which uses pins 3 and 4). Thus cables are not in general compatible between different phones, as the phone base may have a socket with pins 2 and 5 (requiring a straight through cable), or have an RJ11 socket (requiring a crossover cable).

[edit] Compatibility

Different telephone connections are generally compatible with the use of an adapter: the physical connector and its wiring is the primary incompatibility.

See: gallery of telephone adapters.

[edit] List of plugs

[edit] Modular Plug & Jack sizes

RJ11 family - 9.5mm wide - "regular phone"

  • RJ11 two-contact "regular modular" 9.5mm wide; 6P2C; center contacts used; Cat 3 line 1=red & green wires
  • RJ14 four-contact 9.5mm wide; 6P4C; line 1 as per RJ11; outside contacts are line 2=yellow & black
  • RJ12 six-contact 9.5mm wide 6P6C; line 1 & line 2 as per RJ14; outside blue & white =line 3

Handset connector

  • RJ22 (also RJ9 & RJ10) four-contact "handset" size; 7.5MM wide; 4P4C

RJ45 family - 12mm wide - "ethernet"

  • RJ45 eight-contact 12mm wide; 8P8C; line 1 =blue & blue/white; line 2 =orange & orange/white; line 3 =green & green/white; line 4 =brown & brown/white
  • RJ48 used for T1 Connection: digitally multiplexed 23 phone numbers +CID over two pairs of wires; pin 1=orange/white, pin 2=orange, pin 4=blue, pin 5=blue/white
  • RJ31 single line with alarm - center pins #4 & #5 connect to phone line; outside pins #1 & #8 connect to another phone jack allowing the alarm dialer or medical alert system to dial the monitoring company when triggered.
  • RJ38 similar to RJ31 but a connection between pin #2 & #7 indicates that a plug is inserted
  • RJ50 ten-contact 10P10C; same size as RJ45 but with ten contacts

Business phone

  • RJ25 50-pin AMP connector; old multiline business phones such as ITT-2564, Western Electric 1A2

To maintain polarity, the "latch release" of modular plugs should be on the "ridge" side of flat phone wire.

[edit] International standards

[edit] National standards

  1. WT-4
  2. RJ11
  3. Cable holes

Traditionally, the 5th plastic pin disconnects 1 μF capacitor that shorts telephone line while plug is not inserted into socket. In modern makes it does nothing electrical, and capacitor compartment was reused for additional RJ11 socket.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] List of countries and territories, with the plugs they use

This list covers only single line telephone plugs commonly used in homes and other small installations. Special telephone sets use a variety of special plugs, for example micro ribbon for key telephone systems and the wide array of registered jacks.

Place Plug or Plugs
Albania RJ11
Algeria F-010
Argentina RJ11
Australia 610 or RJ11
Austria TDO
Barbados RJ11
Belarus RJ11 or Polish 5-pin WT-4 in older installations
Belgium Tetrapolar or RJ11
Bolivia RJ11
Bosnia RJ11, or older 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia
Botswana BS 6312
Brazil Telebrás plug or RJ11
Bulgaria RJ11 or Russian/Polish 5-pin plug in old installations
Canada RJ11
Cayman Islands RJ11
Chile RJ11
China, People's Republic of RJ11
Colombia RJ11 Also in use the national standard [1]
Costa Rica RJ11
Croatia RJ11, or older 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia
Cyprus BS 6312 (431A and 631A) With RJ11 used for ADSL
Czech Republic RJ11, or older 4-pin national plug
Denmark RJ11 in newer installations, but mainly the national 3-prong standard.[2]
Dominican Republic RJ11
Ecuador RJ11
Estonia RJ11 or Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) in older installations
Faroe Islands RJ11
Finland RJ11, 3-prong national standard in older installations[3]
France F-010
Germany TAE, or RJ45 for ISDN
Gibraltar BS 6312
Greece RJ11 although other types can also be found
Hong Kong RJ11 in newer installations, or BS 6312
Hungary RJ11
Iceland RJ11, or SS 455 15 50 in older installations
India RJ11
Indonesia RJ11
Iran RJ11, older installations may be CEI 23-16/VII or CEE 7/16.
Ireland RJ11, RJ45 for ISDN, Digital PBX and office systems (4 way post office jack on pre mid-1980's installations)
Israel BS 6312 or RJ11
Italy Tripolar plug or RJ11
Japan RJ11
Latvia RJ11 or Polish 5-pin WT-4 in older installations
Lithuania RJ11 or Polish 5-pin WT-4 in older installations
Liechtenstein Reichle-connector (4-pin Swiss telephone plugs in old installations)
Luxembourg RJ11 (sometimes older 4-pin luxembourgish telephone plug can be found)
Macedonia RJ11, or older 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia
Malaysia RJ11
Malta BS 6312, or RJ11 in some newer installations
Mexico RJ11
Montenegro RJ11, or older 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia
Morocco F-010 or RJ11
Netherlands RJ11 and the Dutch telephone plug
New Zealand BS 6312
Norway RJ11 in newer installations, 3-prong national standard in older installations[4]
Pakistan RJ11
Panama RJ11
Peru RJ11
Philippines RJ11
Poland RJ11 or Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) coupled with RJ11 socket in older installations
Portugal RJ11 (also known as R.I.T.A.)
Romania RJ11, 3-pin triangular plug or 5-pin circular plug
Russia RJ11, or Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) in older installations
Serbia RJ11, or older 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia
Singapore RJ11
Slovenia RJ11, or older 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia
Slovakia RJ11, or older 4-pin national plug
South Africa RJ11 or Protea, RJ45 used for ISDN
South Korea standard 4-pin plug, or RJ11 for special use
Spain RJ11
Sri Lanka RJ11
Sweden SS 455 15 50 or RJ11
Switzerland Reichle-connector or older 4-pin plugs
Taiwan RJ11
Thailand RJ11
Turkey RJ11
United Arab Emirates BS 6312
United Kingdom BS 6312 (431A and 631A) With RJ11 used for ADSL British Telephone Sockets
United States of America RJ11
Venezuela RJ11
Zimbabwe BS 6312 or RJ11

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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