Dial-A-Tone Pulse to Tone Converter All VOIP services: BT, EE, Virgin, Sky, Vodaphone etc

Please Note: We are getting frequent enquiries regarding comments made in forums/social media which relate to supposed issues regarding the power available through VOIP services and in particular supposed difficulties in ringing mechanical bells. To clarify, all VOIP services supply the necessary AC ringing current and with our Dial-A-Tone or inDAT products no supplementary power is required.

We are proud to offer our own top-quality pulse to tone converter, designed to return vintage dial telephones to full functionality on VOIP lines, typically delivered from a socket on the back of a router. It is designed to function on traditional copper telephone lines, all domestic VoIP lines (BT Digital Voice, EE, Sky etc) and external ATA's. It is not suitable for use on Digital Business lines without an external ATA.

About the telephone

Designed exclusively for us by Geoff Peters, the 'Dial-A-Tone' is a line powered unit which operates with no loud beeps, no pausing between digits and no special dialling technique required. There is, by intention, no 'last number redial', no 'stored numbers', no 'star' or 'hash' - nothing to interfere with the authentic vintage experience of using a period telephone.

We now also offer our Dial-A-Tone with a 2-way splitter which can be used to provide an addition socket at the router, or to allow two telephones to be plugged into one Dial-A-Tone.

(Please note: If you require 'Star', 'Hash', 'Last Number Redial' or to store numbers, we offer this with our 'inDAT' Pulse to Tone Converter restorations)

Technically far in advance of anything else on the market, the Dial-A-Tone is capable of coping with a wide range of dial speeds (far outside GPO specifications) and is the least intrusive 'inline' device available. No modifications are required, so no damage is done to the authenticity or value of the telephone. Uniquely, the Dial-A-Tone is designed for the UK market and, as standard, is fitted with a BT socket (603A). RJ11 versions are also available - please message us for further details.

The Dial-A-Tone is designed to be plugged into a VOIP enabled router (or BT Digital Voice adaptor). After a VOIP installation, existing wall telephone sockets will usually be inoperative and would need to be wired into the back of the router. Virgin Media will sometimes do this, but we can also advise any purchaser how this may be done.


The Dial-A-Tone is designed as a 'fit and forget' device, however, for the more technically minded our device ….

- Is constructed from components from leading suppliers . The processor is a genuine ‘Microchip Technology’ PIC.

- Is housed in a genuine Hammond enclosure which we customise in-house.

- Is supplied with a built-in ‘full value’ ring capacitor which will resolve ringing issues that some routers exhibit.

- Can be used to run multiple telephones and can be wired to existing telephone extensions.

- Can be supplied with RJ11 and 431a (socket and plug) variants.

- Can be supplied as a ‘New Zealand’ version for dialling with ‘reversed’ numbering.

- Has been used successfully with some push button decadic key pads such as those used on 706s. However, faulting may occur if keypads draw excessive current and we do not guarantee the Dial-A-Tone for this application.

- Will cope with a wide range of dial speeds and make/break ratios.

If you experience faulting on some numbers the make/break ratio on your dial will be very badly out of specification – around 80/20 or worse. We offer a full dial restoration service which will protect the life of the dial and resolve any such issues.

And a little further background ...

Without an elegant solution to allow dial telephones to run on the new VOIP system we were aware that this heritage would be lost – very much as the interest in vintage radios has waned with the loss of analogue broadcasting stations. We were unhappy with aspects of existing products, so we put out the call for someone we could work with to develop a product in keeping with our ethos and product range.

As a result, we were lucky enough to connect with Geoff Peters, a telecoms expert who has worked with leading telecom providers. He has been a dream to collaborate with, and together we have adopted a ‘belt and braces’ approach to designing the optimum pulse to tone converter. As a result, the DAT is more resilient and compatible than anything else available. The small size has been achieved by utilising surface mount technology for passive components with the remaining assembly hand built by ourselves. We thoroughly test each individual device and offer technical support and advice.

There is more information about BT Digital Voice on Bob Freshwater's website - a mine of historical telecoms information:

https://britishtelephones.com/btdigitalvoice.htm#dial