Feinberg@YUKON.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Neal Feinberg) (10/16/87)
We have an ancient 5 line key phone system at our house. It consists of three rotary phones (each with 5 big push-button line selectors plus hold) and a box in the basement which makes mechanical-sounding noises. Currently it costs us a lot of money to rent these phones and the box in the basement from AT&T. It would also cost a lot of money to buy the system from AT&T. Clearly they don't want to support this klunky equipment anymore. Rat Snack claims to sell key phones for $150, but I don't really trust them to be of suitable quality. Questions: 1) Who sells reasonable quality key phones at a good price? 2) What does the box in the basement do? Do modern key phones need this box? If so, where can we buy one?
kwe@BU-CS.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England)) (10/23/87)
In article <19871016163331.9.FEINBERG@BLACKSTONE.SCRC.Symbolics.COM> Feinberg@YUKON.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Neal Feinberg) writes: >We have an ancient 5 line key phone system at our house. It consists of >three rotary phones (each with 5 big push-button line selectors plus >hold) and a box in the basement which makes mechanical-sounding noises. This system is called a 1A2 key system. It is entirely mechanical and expensive to maintain. These mechanical key sets are replaced with electronic key systems with PBX-like features and simpler wiring. The 1A2 key sets use 25 pair wire and elec key use 4 to 8 pair wire. Of course, your old wire can be reused with adaptors. Elec key systems need AC power and don't work when the power goes out. > >1) Who sells reasonable quality key phones at a good price? > You can buy an elec key system from your phone company. They probably sell Merlin from AT&T. New England Tel also sells TIE DataStar, but this is for larger installations. Buy from Radio Shack if you can get a good warranty and service contract. >2) What does the box in the basement do? Do modern key phones need this > box? If so, where can we buy one? Elec key systems use a box in the basement but it is new, smaller, and lighter than the 1A2. The old 1A2 box makes a good boat anchor. Talk to your phone company first, then Radio Shack. Then look at all the ads in the Wall Street Journal. Seems that WSJ is the place to sell company execs on the phone system for business. I don't know what professional mag to read to pick up info, but I think there are a lot of elec key systems in the 10-20 line range. Don't buy from any store that also sells housewares. :-) Kent England, Boston University -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Kent W. England | Boston University Network & Systems Engineering Group | Information Technology kwe@bu-it.bu.edu internet | 111 Cummington Street itkwe@bostonu BITnet | Boston, MA 02215 harvard!bu-cs!kwe UUCP | (617) 353-2780 -------------------------------------------------------------------