“The great thing about standards…
… is that there are so many to choose from”. And, sometimes, it seems, we can choose between different incompatible variants of the same standard:
Impressive! At first I assumed this was a similar — but more ‘exciting’ (read: dangerous) — variant of the “we don’t care what colour you use as long as the pins are connected the same” rules of wiring that Ethernet connections use. However, it seems as though the commercial/fixed wiring regulations have simply finally caught up with the (now ancient) UK consumer/flexible wiring standards by doing away with the red/black colour scheme in favour of the blue/brown scheme that most of the rest of Europe uses. How boring!