haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (99700000) (09/27/90)
The juxtaposition of subjects in a recent Digest triggered some old memories. Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Michael Coleman] Re: Burglar Alarm Problems [Paul Colley] There used to be several guys in the northern suburbs of Chicago who had their own private telephone exchange. The switch was a Navy surplus SxS machine that had been used on a ship, I think. To connect their homes to the switch they had private lines leased from Illinois Bell. Private voice lines are pretty expensive; but they discovered that under the tariffs of the day they could get burglar alarm lines at a much lower rate, and they worked just fine for voice. Supposedly someone at the phone company discovered what was going on and had two microfarad capacitors installed in the central office shunting the lines. This rendered them practically useless for voice, but still serviceable for burglar alarm purposes.