[comp.dcom.telecom] Intellidial and Intercom

arnaud@angate.att.com (Alain Arnaud) (09/28/89)

I live in a multi-story (six) townhouse. I have two phone lines, one of
them connected to a fax machine. We receive all of our voice calls on
one line.

I would like to be able to add an intercom feature. Lets say, the
phone rings, I am in the room on the sixth level, my wife is in a room
on the second level, I would like to be able to put the call on hold,
dial the phone in that room to tell her to pickup.  I thought that
Intellidial would allow me to do this, but after talking to a New
England Telephone representative, who was very helpful and courteous
I found out that the intercom feature of Intellidial allows only to
call bewtween the two lines. BTW, I like very much the other features,
the NET rep offered to turn on the service next week for a two week
trial period, after which if I choose to keep it, they will charge me
 $21/line.  All of our phones are trimline type, so what would be the
best way to add the intercom feature.

Alan Arnaud (arnaud@angate.att.com)

Standard disclaimer, just consulting at ATT.

[Moderator's Note: Same problem here, in a way. I have two lines, using
one exclusively for voice and the other for mostly modem and some voice.
You can have 'half an intercom' by using the line with the FAX to dial
the intercom code to the other line, assuming you have a phone instrument
on the line as well as a FAX machine. If I want my brother or his wife,
I use the modem line to dial the code for the other line. When Dan or Tina
want me, they call if the modem is not on the line (I don't use auto
answer); otherwise they walk from wherever to my room and talk to me!  PT]