Those of you who still have a landline (and who still use it), have you noticed that the ringtones on UK landline phones have recently changed from double rings (ring ring...ring ring...ring ring) to single rings (ring...ring...ring)? The ringtone that you hear at the other end when you call a UK landline still consists of double rings, though.
My home landline has recently changed to single rings, and my parents tell me that their phone has done the same so I presume it has happened everywhere in the UK. Or maybe only certain exchanges have made the change, just as back in the 1990s some exchanges introduced the 1471 call-back facility earlier than others.
For as long as I can remember double rings have always been the norm in the UK for external calls and single rings usually meant an internal call (e.g. within an office building). I think single rings have always been the norm in mainland Europe and the USA, though, both on the actual handset and on the ringtone that you hear at the other end.
My home landline has recently changed to single rings, and my parents tell me that their phone has done the same so I presume it has happened everywhere in the UK. Or maybe only certain exchanges have made the change, just as back in the 1990s some exchanges introduced the 1471 call-back facility earlier than others.
For as long as I can remember double rings have always been the norm in the UK for external calls and single rings usually meant an internal call (e.g. within an office building). I think single rings have always been the norm in mainland Europe and the USA, though, both on the actual handset and on the ringtone that you hear at the other end.