Telephone connection warning

[sethmh1]

I wasn't sure where to put this query..but here goes
I have an old (1951) Kristen Kirks F51 telephone (pictured below) that I would like to connect to my standard bt landline. On initial inspection, I found this rather worrying note on the bottom, threatening 'action' against anyone connecting the phone to bt.
Does anyone know why this message was placed, and if it is still relevant today?
Many thanks

[twocvbloke]

Interesting label, I've only ever seen the usual "Green spot" labels, I guess that was from the early BT days where they still had the monopoly (before it was thatchered and sold off), I would say that in this day and age, BT (or any of the piggyback companies (sky, talktalk, primus, etc.)) would do anything about it considering there's so many "non-compliant" phones connected, just make sure it's wired up & converted properly (not sure how to convert this phone myself though) inside and it should be fine...

[Owain]

Yes, it still applies and has to be displayed on any phone which isn't (wasn't) BABT (British Approvals Board for Telecommunications) approved. Nowadays this has been replaced by self-declaration and CE marking.

[sethmh1]

So that means I can't use it?

[WesternElectricBen]

What if the sticker was pealed off?

Ben

[Kenton K]

I really don't think there is any way they could tell if that telephone was used or a new telephone from the store. I would use it. But if you really don't want to use it, you could always mail it to me! 

Ken

[twocvbloke]

Like I say, if the phone's wired up properly (I.E. not wired for a special system, an intercom or something of that ilk) and is appropriately converted to modern BT standards, then there really isn't a problem connecting it to a phoneline, if need be you could add a phone system between the line and phone (Panasonic 308 and 616 systems are the usual choice here on the forum), but that shouldn't really be necessary...

[rp2813]

I wouldn't be surprised if that sticker is associated with ringer equivalency.  When the telcos were forced to allow customer premises equipment other than their own to be used by subscribers, the instructions included with all off-the shelf phones for sale advised to contact the telco and provide them with the set's ringer equivalency number.

If the subject phone were actually capable of causing damage to telco plant assets or interfering with the system in any way,  the sticker would not read ". . . action may be taken . . ."  Action absolutely would be taken -- in Federal court.

Don't worry yourself. 

[twocvbloke]

in Federal court.

'cept we haven't got them here in the UK...

When you think about it, the average home-converted GPO phone is technically non-compliant as the conversion wasn't carried out by an appropriate technician (do they even exist today anyway?) to turn them into 8xxx model phones, so should also carry one of these red triangle stickers, but as the telephone network has been so liberalised since it was thatchered, they just don't care, anything past the Master socket's faceplate is the householder's responsibility, anything behind it is BT-Openreach's responsibility, and if a fault from the customer side damages the provider side, then they can charge for repair work, but, that rarely happens anyway unless the householder does something really silly...