In message , at 19:03:33 on
Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Charles Ellson remarked:

Mercury was also mentioned but unlike BT they had nothing in the way of
a universal service obligation and served a very small market.

I'm not aware that dialling the Mercury Access code was in any way
restricted, other than people, wherever they were, signing up for a
Mercury subscription.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message

In message , at 19:03:33
on Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Charles Ellson
remarked:
Mercury was also mentioned but unlike BT they had nothing in the way
of a universal service obligation and served a very small market.

I'm not aware that dialling the Mercury Access code was in any way
restricted, other than people, wherever they were, signing up for a
Mercury subscription.

I still use a phone that has a blue Mercury button! I was never a
Mercury customer, and never worked out how to reprogram the button to do
something more useful.

In message , at 14:41:13 on
Fri, 6 Jan 2012, Recliner remarked:
I'm not aware that dialling the Mercury Access code was in any way
restricted, other than people, wherever they were, signing up for a
Mercury subscription.

I still use a phone that has a blue Mercury button! I was never a
Mercury customer, and never worked out how to reprogram the button to do
something more useful.

I think they came programmed to prepend "131", not sure if that can be
changed.
--
Roland Perry

On 06/01/12 14:52, Roland Perry wrote:

I think they came programmed to prepend "131", not sure if that can be
changed.

The one I had did 131, pause, PIN. You only entered the PIN and couldn't
get rid of the 131, so it was no use for anything else.

Ian

On 06/01/12 14:32, Roland Perry wrote:
I'm not aware that dialling the Mercury Access code was in any way
restricted, other than people, wherever they were, signing up for a
Mercury subscription.

The original 131+PIN service was only available to some exchanges,
though the number of those increased with time. The later 132 service
was, I think, available everywhere.

Ian

On Fri, 6 Jan 2012 14:32:30 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 19:03:33 on
Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Charles Ellson remarked:

Mercury was also mentioned but unlike BT they had nothing in the way of
a universal service obligation and served a very small market.

I'm not aware that dialling the Mercury Access code was in any way
restricted, other than people, wherever they were, signing up for a
Mercury subscription.

Mercury was not providing the infrastructure for that service, merely
using an established provider to connect the calls to their much
smaller network, a bit like Sainsburys being obliged to allow a
competitor to set up order desks within its premises.

In message , at 17:58:26 on
Fri, 6 Jan 2012, Charles Ellson remarked:
Mercury was also mentioned but unlike BT they had nothing in the way of
a universal service obligation and served a very small market.

I'm not aware that dialling the Mercury Access code was in any way
restricted, other than people, wherever they were, signing up for a
Mercury subscription.

Mercury was not providing the infrastructure for that service, merely
using an established provider to connect the calls to their much
smaller network, a bit like Sainsburys being obliged to allow a
competitor to set up order desks within its premises.

It's a bit more complicated than that, because Mercury was, where
available, able to use its own infrastructure for backbone and
international calling (which was after all C&W's core business).

The main thing they were doing was sharing the local loop, and the
domestic market was always a bit of a distraction from their offering to
businesses.
--
Roland Perry

On 06/01/12 17:58, Charles Ellson wrote:
Mercury was not providing the infrastructure for that service, merely
using an established provider to connect the calls to their much
smaller network, a bit like Sainsburys being obliged to allow a
competitor to set up order desks within its premises.

I believe that the original Mercury 131 service required Mercury to have
lines into BT exchanges. When I signed up in 1992 only some areas of
Edinburgh were covered. The later 132 service was much more like things
nowadays, and was available from any BT exchange.

Ian