[comp.dcom.telecom] Three Lines in Residence

alonzo@uunet.uu.net (06/01/90)

I have a friend in Toronto, Ontario who wants to have three telephone
lines in her apartment, each with its own answering machine.  Two of
the lines will only be answered by machine.  The third is her personal
line.  The lines will have different answering messages.

Are there any angles here with respect to lines that are answered only
by machine?  Can anyone suggest some good (cheap) hardware that would
help to satisfy these requirements?  I suppose an answering service is
an option, but I expect it would be more expensive and less efficient
than a machine.  Does Bell offer machine-answered lines that are
cheaper and do not require extra circuits to the house (i.e., you call
up and retrieve messages with tone codes)?

What are the appropriate rules with regard to residence vs. commercial
lines?  One of the lines is for a non-profit charitable organization
and the other for a very small consulting business.

I can no longer keep up with the volume of the group, so I would like
any advice you can give me via email (uunet!microsoft!alonzo).  I will
summarize information of general usefulness to the net.

Thanks,

Alonzo Gariepy
alonzo@microsoft