How to use office phones for home use? ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I have always wondered whether networked office phones can be converted to regular phones for use at home. Please advise.

A. It depends on the make and model of phone. If they're proprietary "digital" phones they will only work with the KSU or PBX they were intended for so you would need that too. Even if a particular office phone could be connected directly to your home phone line it may not have any feature operations without the benefit of the KSU or PBX central equipment. Do you have a specific phone in mind? Most office phones only work with a phone switch (pbx) from that same manufacturer. So unless you install a PBX switch in your house (and some folks like Panasonic units for this) then you can't use most office phones at home. Also bear in mind that many digital phones can be damaged by plugging them into analog phone lines. The ring signalling used for POTS lines (your average 'plain old telephone service' line) is 90 volts AC. This can fry many PBX handsets. Also note that most office phones are incompatible with each other. They're designed to work, and only to work, with the PBX from the same vendor. Thus a Nortel phone has very little likelihood of working with, say, a Panasonic switch (and vice versa).

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