Heh. The cable company just called to try to sell us cable phone service. You should have heard the "gulp" when we told them we had nine separate phone jacks around the house. Apparently six is the maximum you can get for free.
One in each bedroom (4), one outside, one in the kitchen, two in the family room, and one in the playroom. That doesn't seem too outrageous to me.
Posted by Linkmeister at October 23, 2009 03:51 PM | TrackBackIt's been years since I paid attention to analog POTS service, but I suspect this has to do with what their default hardware can drive on their ring voltage. The telco can drive that much equipment (and their remote stuff might, too, depending), but with that many extensions, you'd have to do the calculations and know what ringer type each handset was.
We solved this problem by using Panasonic wireless handsets; only one ringer in the house (from the perspective of the FiOS equipment driving it). A year or two ago, we inherited what appears to be a 1903 Kellogg Compact Dry Cell phone...
http://www.telephonearchive.com/phones/kg/kg-1903-compact-dry-cell.html
The late husband of the woman who gave it to us had the guts removed and converted to rotary dial; to use it previously, you had to hand crank the magneto and that would attract the attention of the operator. The dry cells, no longer necessary, were removed in place of a fixed rotary dial. Helen wants me to install it somewhere...
Posted by: Rob McMillin at October 23, 2009 08:14 PMAs a confirmed gadget freak, I LOVE the Kellogg phone! (Kellogg? I thought they made cereal...)
Posted by: hedera at October 24, 2009 11:45 AMWhat? No phone in the bathroom???????????
Posted by: toxiclabrat at October 25, 2009 11:55 AM