Connecting your Telephone

Getting your Phone in the Wall:

Pick up a phone and you can reach any other on the planet. Wonderful! Leaving aside Ferdinand Magellan's sailing ships, the phone system represents the first great global networking technology. The industry's shared protocols triumphantly tie us all together. A telephone is a telephone - whether in China, the U.S., or outer Mongolia.

Unfortunately, getting that telephone you picked up in Mongolia to plug into an Irish wall is a huge problem. I am aware of 37 different telephone plug systems, and there may be more. ET may have been able to phone home to a distant planet using his home-made phone, but it's a good thing he didn't try to plug that unit into the wall.

Ireland's phone system uses United States standard plugs. The technical term for the plug is RJ11. So, modems and telephones purchased in the States can be plugged directly into the Irish telephone system without any problems. Well, almost no problems. Your modem might need a transformer to operate on 220 volt current. For more on making your electric equipment work in Ireland, click here.

So what do you do if you have loads of telecommunications equipment that works just fine, but won't fit into an Irish/U.S. phone socket? Try contacting a firm which specialises in providing adaptors. Using these handy little devices, you plug your phone from Gambia or Indonesia into one side, and the other side will fit into the phone jack in the wall. One firm with whom I dealt handled my connection needs in a timely and professional manner. They are TeleAdapt Ltd. They offer an online help desk, including problem solving connecting via a modem in hotels, offices and payphones all over the world.

Simply phone Eircom, the former national telephone company that still has a monopoly on all landline hardware - putting up telephone poles and wires and connecting them to your house. Dialing 1901 on any phone and asking for Sales or explaining your needs will do the trick. These days, your phone can normally be installed within a few working days.

If you're buying an existing home, it's often as simple as ringing Eircom and getting them to reactivate the line from their end. They give you a new phone number and you're on.

Calling Ireland from International Locations

When calling from outside Ireland to Irish numbers you have to do the following:

1. Call through to the international system.
In England and Ireland you do this by dialing 00 at the beginning of your direct call. Since the system varies by country, the convention used to write international telephone numbers is to put a + at the beginning of the number.

2. Dial the country code.
The country code for Ireland is 353.

3. Dial the area code.
If there is a 0 in front of the area code, drop it if you are calling from outside Ireland.

4. Dial the number.
This stays the same whether calling internally or externally.

Example:

A Dublin number listed as 01 - 222 2222 can be reached from outside the country by dialling into the international system (00, or however your country works it), then dialing Ireland's country code of 353, then dropping the 0 in front of the Dublin area code of 01. So, it becomes +353 - 1 - 222 2222.