DIGITO italian Payphone

Retronetworking
1

Hello,
is there anyone here in the forum who has worked with the Italian coin and card telephone from Urmet?
The telephone is used by the Italian TIM and works on the two-wire U interface via the Italian ISDN standard.
I am looking for interested parties who are familiar with the device.
The problem on the U-side is that the standard for the interface in Italy is not 4D3T but 2B1Q, so you cannot simply connect the device.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Greetings

Dirk

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2

Hi Dirk,

2B1Q was (is?) also used for ISDN BRI in the network of DB (Deutsche Bahn). @gruetzkopf might know more about it and possibly have hints what kind of PBX equipment might have line cards for it.

Apart from that, we have @xent from Italy who might have some input as to how/where to find LT (Line Termination) euqipment for it.

The V5 AN and EWSD equipment we have available in the project is all for German Uk0, and that uses 4B3T.

Regards,
Harald

3

Hi Dirk,

payphones in Italy were developed inside Telecom Italia the former state owned operator and then build by some controlled company like Urmet, IPM or Italtel. So the internals and design are almost impossible to find, especially the Digito because technically it’s still a model in “service” (I even asked to some former employee and it seems like is been treated like a state secret).

As far as I discovered this phones were connected to the same line cards of the normal ISDN subscribers, specifically the MEPL (if UT100) or MEPR (multiplexer shelf) modules of the switch Italtel UT-100. Those line cards provided a two wire interface U (2B1Q we’ve always used this standard, the NT1 were provided exclusively by the operator and I don’t know if useful but the NT ic was almost always a PEB8191 except for the very old one). The provisioning and telemetry was centralized inside some proprietary server in Rome so at boot the phone should be calling a service number starting with 06xxxxxx (I cannot really verify this information, it came out from some random chat).

From time to time I try to poke around for any new information but to honest I kind of lost hope.

Regards,
Leo

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Hello Harald,

first of all, thank you for the information about the colleagues who use rail equipment. I’ll keep that in mind.
Regards,
Dirk

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Hello Leo,
Thank you for the very interesting information. You are certainly right, it is not easy to get the answers, there are simply too few people involved. Payphones are a dying breed. But I’ll keep at it, we have a similar system in Germany that also works with ISDN, only here it’s a bit easier because the S0 (4-wire) is tapped.
Can you say something about Rotor Data over Voice?
I’m still trying to get the phone working again with this device. The Rotor DOV is the model before the Digito, developed by IPM, later also built by Urmet.
I have a testing device from Italy, the so-called NECSY M270 OV, with which you can test parts of the rotor with DOV modem.
Do you know this device?

Greetings from Germany,

Dirk

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I found a very interessting aricle in the web:

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Hi Dirk,

I’ve got very few information about the Rotor, I can tell you they exist in 3 release:

  1. Rotor I was a coin/token only, it came with black plastic or silver color metal keypad, this model is compatible with the standard PSTN line, the telemetry I think was handle by a simple modem.
  2. Rotor II the design was exactly the same as the Rotor I + add-on module on the right for the phone cards and the keypad was only silver color metal, the logic board was completely different it wasn’t compatible with the PSTN line and they build proprietary line card for connecting to the central office, I’ve found out there are 2 versions: 2F = 2 wires with an 100V TA, 4F = 4 wires 2 for a PSTN line + 2 for OV
  3. Rotor III was a new design was smaller and without the support for coin/token, it was connected to the same line card of the Rotor II

I know the NECSY M270 I used a couple times (I don’t own one but I friend does) but to be honest I didn’t know about the diagnostic feature for the Rotor, since it’s handle only PSTN line my guess it’s compatible only with the Rotor I but I can’t verify that.

Regards,
Leo

1 Like
8

Hello Leo,

Is there a possibility to get in contact by direct mail?

Reg,

Dirk

9

Hi @sigpayphone, I suggest you reach out via a personal message to @xent here on the forum, and then you can exchange other contact details privately. It wouldn’t be good to have them here in a public thread.

10

Hi Dirk,

sure, I’ll send you a private message with my contacts as Harald suggested.

Leo