A telephone jack and a telephone plug are electrical connectors for connecting a telephone set or other telecommunications apparatus to the telephone wiring inside a building, establishing a connection to a telephone network. The plug is inserted into its counterpart, the jack, which is commonly affixed to a wall or baseboard. The standards for telephone jacks and plugs vary from country to country, though the 6P2C style modular plug has become by far the most common type.
A connection standard, such as RJ11, specifies not only the physical aspects of an electrical connector, but also the signal definitions for each contact, and the pinout of the device, i.e. the assignment or function of each contact.[1] Modular connectors are specified for the registered jack (RJ) 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 cords,[2] often improperly[3] [4] referred to as RJ connectors.
Historically, telephones were typically owned by the telephone company, and were usually permanently wired to the telephone line. For some applications it was necessary or convenient to provide portable telephone sets that could be moved to a different location within the customer's premises. For this purpose telephone companies developed jacks and plugs in various designs with various numbers of contacts. Before, concentric connectors with three contacts were usually sufficient, but the upgrade of telephone sets to anti-sidetone circuitry in the 1930s required at least four conductors between a desk set and the subscriber set that contained the telephone hybrid and a ringer. For this purpose, Bell System engineers developed a cube-shaped four-prong plug (type no. 283) with uneven prong spacings to avoid improper insertion into the jack.[5] [6]
The cubic design was changed to a round version (No. 505A) in the mid 1960s. The four-prong jack and plug combination was the standard line connection for all portable telephone sets until the conversion to modular jacks in the 1970s, typified by the Registered Jack standards promulgated in U.S. federal law.
Many countries initially used different specifications for connectors, and some national connector types remain in service, but few are used for new installations for which modular connector types are prescribed.
The installation of a conventional wired telephone set has four connection points, each of which may be hardwired, but more often use a plug and socket:
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 cord, and the defining characteristic of mobile telephones is that they do not have a phone cord.
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 BS 6312 (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).
When modular connectors are used, the latch release of the connector should be on the ridge side of flat phone wire in order to maintain polarity.
Though four wires are typically used in U.S. phone cabling, only two are necessary for telecommunication. In the event that a second line is needed, the other two are used. They are also sometimes used to provide power for telephone dial lamps (6 volts AC, as in the Princess phone), or other features.
See main article: Modular connector.
The Polish WT-4 plug is also adopted in the Eastern Bloc and Russia as ШТР-IV (SHTR-IV) and has four metal pins and an additional fourth dielectric pin. The corresponding socket comes in two variants. The GTN-4 socket (РТШ-IV (RTSH-IV) in Russia) provides a 4 pin connection (in most cases, the two rightmost pins are used for connecting a single line). The GTNC-4 (РТШК-IV, RTSHK-IV) is a GTN-4 socket that has an additional circuit. The 5th plastic pin of the inserted plug disconnects a 1μF capacitor that otherwise closes the circuit of the telephone line when the plug is not inserted. This feature allows testing the line when the phone is not plugged in.[7] The usage of a capacitor is mostly obsolete and GTN-4 sockets produced later reuse the capacitor compartment for an additional RJ11 socket.
This list covers only single-line telephone plugs commonly used in homes and other small installations; there are 44 different variations of plugs, including an Israeli version of BS6312 with different internal wiring of the pins, plus hard wiring to a junction box with no adapter. Special telephone sets use a variety of special plugs, for example micro ribbon for key telephone systems.
| Albania | 6P2C | |
| Algeria | F-010 | |
| Argentina | 6P2C | |
| Australia | 610, 6P2C | |
| Austria | TDO | |
| Barbados | 6P2C | |
| Belarus | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| Belgium | Tetrapolar plug, 6P2C | |
| Bolivia | 6P2C | |
| Bosnia | 6P2C, 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia | |
| Botswana | BS 6312 | |
| Brazil | Telebrás plug, 6P2C | |
| Brunei | 6P2C | |
| Bulgaria | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| Canada | 6P2C | |
| Cayman Islands | 6P2C | |
| Chile | 6P2C | |
| China Mainland | 6P2C | |
| Colombia | 6P2C, 2-pin national standard[8] | |
| Costa Rica | 6P2C | |
| Croatia | 6P2C, 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia | |
| Cyprus | BS 6312, 6P2C[9] | |
| Czech Republic | 6P2C, 4-pin national plug | |
| Denmark | 3-prong national standard, 6P2C | |
| Dominican Republic | 6P2C | |
| Ecuador | 6P2C | |
| Egypt | 6P2C[10] | |
| Estonia | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| Faroe Islands | 6P2C | |
| Finland | 6P2C, Tripolar plug | |
| France | F-010, 8P8C (since 2003) | |
| Germany | TAE, 8P8C | |
| Gibraltar | BS 6312 | |
| Greece | 6P2C,[11] Bipolar plug in older installations | |
| Hong Kong | 6P2C, BS 6312 | |
| Hungary | 6P2C, legacy 3 and 5-prong national standard[12] [13] | |
| Iceland | 6P2C, SS 455 15 50 | |
| India | 6P2C | |
| Indonesia | 6P2C | |
| Iran | 6P2C | |
| Ireland | 6P2C, 8P8C, [14] | |
| Israel | BS 6312 but wired differently from the British Standard, 6P2C | |
| Italy | Tripolar plug, 6P2C, BTicino-2021 | |
| Japan | 6P2C | |
| Korea, Republic of | 6-pin modular (6P4C or 6P2C), 8-pin modular (8P8C) or 3-position weatherproof connector in accord with TIA-1096-A.[15] 4-prong connector [16] | |
| Latvia | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| Lithuania | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| Liechtenstein | Reichle-connector, 4-pin Swiss telephone plugs | |
| Luxembourg | 6P2C, 4-pin Luxembourgish telephone plug | |
| Malaysia | 6P2C | |
| Malta | BS 6312, 6P2C | |
| Mauritius | F-010 | |
| Mexico | 6P2C | |
| Montenegro | 6P2C, 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia | |
| Morocco | F-010, 6P2C | |
| Myanmar | BS 6312 | |
| Netherlands | 6P2C, 4-pin Dutch telephone plug | |
| Nigeria | 6P2C | |
| New Zealand | BS 6312, 6P2C, 8P8C | |
| North Macedonia | 6P2C, 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia | |
| Norway | 8P8C, [17] Tripolar plug, 6-prong national standard[18] | |
| Pakistan | 6P2C | |
| Panama | 6P2C | |
| Peru | 6P2C | |
| Philippines | 6P2C | |
| Poland | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) coupled with 6P2C socket | |
| Portugal | 6P2C[19] | |
| Romania | 6P2C, 3-pin triangular plug similar to the Italian Tripolar plug,[20] 5-pin R.S.-79.809[21] | |
| Russia | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| Senegal | F-010 | |
| Serbia | 6P2C, 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia | |
| Singapore | 6P2C | |
| Slovenia | 6P2C, 3-pin plug used in countries of former Yugoslavia | |
| Slovakia | 6P2C, 4-pin national plug | |
| South Africa | 6P2C, Protea, 8P8C | |
| Spain | 6P2C | |
| Sri Lanka | 6P2C | |
| Sweden | SS 455 15 50, 6P2C | |
| Switzerland | Reichle-connector, 4-pin plugs | |
| Taiwan | 6P2C | |
| Thailand | 6P2C | |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 6P2C | |
| Turkey | 6P2C, Tripolar plug in older installations | |
| Tunisia | 6P2C, F-010 in older installations | |
| Ukraine | 6P2C, Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| United Arab Emirates | BS 6312 | |
| United Kingdom | BS 6312, 6P2C[22] | |
| United States | 6P2C and other Registered jacks, 4-pin Bell System plugs | |
| Uruguay | 6P2C | |
| USSR (history) | Polish national 5-pin (WT-4) | |
| Venezuela | 6P2C | |
| Zimbabwe | BS 6312, 6P2C |