Phone Question on Cable/Traditional

[Bert Byfield]

I've got two land lines, one cable and one traditional phone company. And I have a telephone that handles two phone lines. Can I plug the two different types of phone lines into the same telephone?

[The Daring Dufas]

Should be no problem. I have three IP phone lines from two different adapters and standard phones work fine.

TDD

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Fri 07 Nov 2008 10:07:11p, Bert Byfield told us...

Yes.

[LouB]

Please report back after you try it. Others think it you will be fine.

Lou

[trader4]

Any of those phone options present the same 2 wire phone interface at the end of the wire to any phone, so you can mix and match.

[buffalobill]

yes if the wiring already works and the phone works when fed with one at a time. if you get crosstalk try a different phone. new wiring should be twisted pairs to avoid crosstalk. label line wire color pairs at each jack, line 1, line 2.

-b

[Evan Platt]

Yes. A phone line is a phone line, as far as a phone is considered.

[DerbyDad03]

Yes, but why?

Would it be cheaper to get a second line from the cable company and eliminate the TelCo bill?

[LouB]

Some people like regular # for 911 safety.

Lou

[DerbyDad03]

True, but does Bert?

[George]

Or some need to use 1980 technology acoustic modems to have their pacemakers checked.

[HeyBub]

1. Can't an acoustic modem work with a VoIP line?
2. In many respects, a cell phone is better for contacting 911 than an ordinary land-line. A cell phone connection, for example, can't be cut by the invading goblins.

[LouB]

Yabut a cell phone system can be easily overloaded in a big emergency.

Lou

[salty]

A 911 call from a cell phne doesn't give your exact location. If your house is on fire or a loved one is in danger, that might be a consideration. Often, 911 callers are unable to speak or answer questions for a multitude of reasons. The dispatcher still knows where the call is coming from and can send help immediately.

[hallerb]

all new phones by federal law include a GPS report of exact location to 911.

but mixing regular phone line with VOIP at great risk.

if a regular phone line contacts a VOIP adapter it will fry your adapter, they can never be in contact with a standard phone line........

[salty]

Good luck with that.

[aemeijers]

Does the term 'single point of failure' ring a bell? If all your connectivity to the outside world is through a single pipe, if that pipe has any problems, you are cut off. I have 3rd-party DSL that rides a separate pair of wires. I have had it go down, and the POTS dial tone still worked. I have had the POTS dial tone go down, and the DSL still worked. I have Satellite for TV, but I also have a roof antenna for days the satt is being cranky. I even have a toy pre-paid cell, mainly for travel, but I still keep a 2-way radio in the car.

Yes, I always recommend to people that they keep their copper line. I also recommend they keep one stone-age line-powered corded Real Telephone plugged into it. Like the ones they had in the house as a kid, the Ma Bell WE style. Modern phones are disposable, and subject to silent failures. The old 500/2500 desk sets are damn near indestructible.

-- aem sends....

[Kurt Ullman]

As of 2008, all cell phones are supposed to be location capable w/GPS chips. It has been a requirement since before 2005 that all handsets sold be location capable and since 2005 the cellphone companies have been required to be at least 95% location capable, although some got waivers from that as long as all new handsets being sold were location-capable (so that people voluntarily holding on to old cell phones wouldn't be forced to change until theY changed providers or bought new phones.) There is some concern, especially in rural areas, however, that the public safety access points (911-centers) may not be paying to get their call centers upgraded. Anyway, for the vast majority of the population, the 911 centers can now know where a person is even if they can't respond or don't know where they are.

[George]

But it isn't an exact location. Carriers could choose two methods. One is assisted GPS and the other is triangulation. GPS is fair and triangulation is pretty coarse. Plus some states (like mine) choose to spend the 911 tax that the cell companies are forced to collect on other stuff. So many call centers don't even have a method to process the data.

[George]

No, they use ancient signaling methods.

Depends what carrier you have. What a lot of folks don't realize is that some carriers are really Mickey Mouse. One of my buddies works in that industry and I often get to see the equipment and it is interesting to see how companies choose to operate. One of the carriers has large battery capacity and backup generators with large fuel tanks on almost every cell site (some non-critical fill in sites don't have generators) the other carriers have minimal battery and just a connector to plug in one of the two or three portable generators they may have to cover a

1,000 square mile area.

We had a recent early snow storm here and there were lots of power problems because leaves were still on the trees and the snow was heavy and wet. All of the cell carriers except one dropped off the map within hours and were still off a day later. And actually the carrier that has a well designed system runs adds about their network and they are one of the few ads that aren't hype.