Cheapest Incoming-Only Phone Service? (Westchester, NY) ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I just moved to a building that requires a local phone number for the door-intercom system to work. Everyone knows my old (cell) phone number, and I have no reason to change it or stop using it, and I have no need for any home telephone service other than my cell phone, but I need a local number. So I'm wondering: what's the cheapest way to get a local phone number which will forward to my cell?

A. Like telco's (non-subscriber) service where any old phone can be plugged into the place on the wall where the phone plugs in, **no actual phone number is needed** since telco (or the private contractor) provides battery as needed to operate the phone when it gets called from the door. So if your building has one of those two types of service (Enter/Interphone) don't bother with calling telco to get phone service; just plug some cheap phone into the jack; it will ring as needed and allow talking as needed for the front door intercom function. When there is not someone at the door talking to you, the phone will otherwise be dead. In any event (Enter or Inter) **call forwarding will not work**. Contractor's box won't do it and telco won't provide it, mainly for security reasons. But there is a *third* type of front door service, always private contractor. Sort of cheesy, IMO. In that system, front door person dials your code (never actual apartment number) and the premises 'box' does a quick look up of your real seven-digit number then places a phone call to that seven-digit number and bridges them together when you answer (if you are home and do answer). Its sort of like a fancy speed dial type thing. On that kind, you *can* do what you want and have it call forwarded or run to an answering machine or wherever, although IMO it is ill advised for security reasons. Do you want the visitor to know you are not home because the door (speed dial type phone) forwards to wherever? There is an exception to the **no for- warding** rule: If you have a telco centrex type system (the first one, above) fully connected and taking incoming/outgoing calls, etc then TRUE incoming calls (not front door calls) can be call forwarded. Turn call forwarding on as desired, but the front door will still give its funny little ring-ring on the phone and not forward. I guess that is because the programming decision whether or not to forward is made at telco long before the decision as the origin of the call. So find out from your new landlord **what kind** of front door intercom service they have. If it is 'cheap' you want then you may be able to get by just plugging a dead phone into a modular jack and letting the front door do its own thing (types one and two above). If you have to have an *actual phone number* (as in type three) then bear in mind the front door will be as limited as the cheap phone service is. If your line is busy (cheap phones do not get call waiting) then the front door will get a busy signal also, and this 'cheap phone you never use since everyone has your cell phone' may turn out to be sort of expensive as you install call waiting (to pamper the front door) and call waiting to forward everyone else (but hopefully not a bad guy burglar, etc) to your cell phone when you are away from home. If you are dealing with type three above and absolutely must get a working phone number from telco, then I would say never give the number out to anyone (the people who matter would have your cell phone anyway). Just let the phone sit there idly 99 percent of the time.

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