What do the telephones in different countries rings sound like?

Question

what do the telphone rings in different countries sound like eg how many times do they ring

Answer 1

Standard British ringing cadence uses a double ring, timed as 0.4 sec. on, 0.2 off, 0.4 on, 2 secs. off, then repeat, i.e. a 3-second cycle resulting in 20 double rings per minute.   A similar cadence is found in some Commonwealth countries and other places which came under British influence, including Australia, New Zealand, the Irish Republic, and some African countries.

The standard ring in the U.S. & Canada is a single ring of 2 seconds followed by a pause of 4 seconds, resulting in a 6-second cycle and 10 rings per minute.  Variations exist for PBX rings, etc.

Most European countries also use a single ring, generally a little shorter than in North America.  It's usually a 1 or 1.5-sec. ring followed by a 3 to 5 second pause, depending upon the country.

Many places have variations for special purposes, such as two numbers with distinct rings on a single line, and in the past there were often all sorts of different ring patterns on rural party lines in North America to identify who the call was for (long, short-short, long-short, etc.).

Answer 2

in ENgland and in E. Africa it sounded the same to me.

There was a long ring and then pause.

I dont know how to describe it really. IT wasn't as annoying as here in the states