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From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: home telephone wiring
Message-ID: <449@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 03:08:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtxinu.449
Posted: Tue Aug 20 03:08:30 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Aug-85 05:37:52 EDT
References: <284@hrpd3.UUCP> <1304@hound.UUCP>
Reply-To: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 44

In article <1304@hound.UUCP> rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) writes:
>[]
>If I were you I would check with the local phone company before I
>went too far in doing it myself. Some years ago a NJBell
>installer told me they (the installers) would refuse to work on
>any phones in a home not wired by them. Of course this was long before
>divestiture, but to check would not hurt.  I know another lad who
>had quite a time with NJB over the same thing even though he used
>WeCo parts and followed all the right practices more religiously than
>real telco installers do. Lets hope those days are gone forever.

Around here, at least, the situation is now this:  All of the wiring
within the house is the property of the homeowner (the telco-installed
wiring *used* to belong to the telco - they charged for installing it,
but not for ownership; in preparation for divestiture they *gave* all
the wiring to the owners of the buildings), and it's the homeowner's
responsibility to ensure that it works, i.e. they'll charge for repairing
it if the wiring is found to be at fault - they may even charge for
the time to locate the problem.

As far as recommendations go, I suggest wiring with the largest number
of pairs you can afford.  25-pair cable is common and will probably
hold you for a long time.  The telco folks will know how to deal with it,
since it's a common phone item.  Whatever wires they don't use, ou can use
for whatever you want - intercom buzzers, low-voltage lighting, etc.

I'd also wire the *entire* house with TV coax - from some central point
(in a closet somewhere that will have space for equipment and work
at a later date) to every place in the house that you might want either
a TV or stereo.  Then, if you hook up to cable, or just want to distrubute
the signal from your own antenna, you'll have the wiring in place.

Wire for stereo speakers isn't a bad idea either, but if you like the kind
of wire I do you can't afford to do much with it.  If you'll be considering
remote speakers, either in a less-than-best-sound configuration (or you're
one of those folks who thinks that I'm crazy to spend all my money on
speaker wire) then do it.  Be sure to use heavy enough wire - 14 gauge
at least, maybe 12 gauge.

-- 
Ed Gould                    mt Xinu, 2910 Seventh St., Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed   +1 415 644 0146

"A man of quality is not threatened by a woman of equality."