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Subject:RE: Customer-friendly word for "landline" From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:40:40 +0200
Fred,
Not all "house phones" were unable to dial outside lines. For instance,
in a hospital setting house phones could often dial outside to answer
pages.
The distinction normally seems to have been a phone that is part of an
internal PBX system, available to the public, that may or may not be
enabled to dial outside--generally with the most common instruction
"Dial 9 for an outside line."
In many settings, these phones could also be used to access a PA system,
usually by dialing a specific prefix. This is commonly found in "house
phones" in large stores, for example.
(For those unused to phone jargon, "PBX" stands for "private branch
exchange."
When I did a gig at Nortel in Richardson, the various groups were
divided into "wireline" and "wireless"--a useful distinction there.
Someone also mentioned "POTS"--which has long been used in the industry
to differentiate also between other services such as the many primary
lines which can carry a multitude of voice or data streams. The "plain
old telephone service" was the single line, dual wire circuit.
Today, I think the most widely understood term would still be "landline"
to differentiate it from wireless service.
David
> From:
> Fred Ridder <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>
>
> "House phone" used to be used in a different, specific sense to refer
> to a phone that could not dial an outside line, such as one that could
> only dial other extensions within a PBX. A common example was a house
> phone in a hotel lobby that could only dial guest rooms.
>
> -FR
>
>
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