BT Lady Who Was She?

[fatrajah]

In 1971, when trying to call Skegness from Sheffield, I got this message verbatim: "Lines from Nottingham are engaged. Please try later".

 

That's a strange thing to remember! Anyway, the call would have been routed from (presumably) Sheffield GSC via Nottingham GSC & encountered congestion on the Nottingham to Skegness route. Of course in those days the trunk network was all-analogue with little spare capacity for busy periods. If one call in 200 failed in the morning busy hour due to congestion, that was reckoned to be OK. There would have been no direct Sheffield to Skegness route because it must have been reckoned by the planners that there was "insufficient community of interest" between the two places.

Edited April 18, 2016 by fatrajah

[hillsbro]

That's a strange thing to remember!...

Mrs hillsbro is surprised how I can remember something from 50 years ago in minute detail, but not what I had for lunch... But I remembered this because Nottingham seemed a roundabout route for the call.

[TWhits]

Mrs hillsbro is surprised how I can remember something from 50 years ago in minute detail, but not what I had for lunch... But I remembered this because Nottingham seemed a roundabout route for the call.

 

I feel sure that I remember the message referring to lines to somewhere in Scotland were unavailable when I tried to call from Worcestershire to Sheffield!

[pitsmoorboy]

I know Maureen Lipman did a BT ad in the 80s her character name was Beatie, as in BT said fast.