How do I set up Vonage with a 4-line telephone?

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 07, 2008 Posts: 19

My friend's office has 4 lines. He has 3 people working there & each person has a 4-line phone at his desk. His phone company, AT&T, is really nickel & diming him like crazy. He's paying something like $225 a month for his phone bill ($60 of that was in taxes!). I told him to switch to Vonage which would reduce that by more than half.

However, I'm not sure how to set it up with his existing 4-line telephones. On the back of each 4-line phone, there are only 2 ports, one that says it's for lines 1&2 and the other that says lines 3&4. I'm assuming most 4-line telephones are built this way (with only 2 ports). His regular telephone wall jacks in his wall actually contain 2 lines even though it's a single jack. So he has 2 wall jacks - one for lines 1&2 and the other for lines 3&4. The telephone company must have set it up that way. So basically there are a total of 4 lines but only 2 jacks/ports.

So how would we switch to Vonage? I understand that we'd have to purchase 4 lines, which means they'd send us 2 phone adapters (each adapter has 2 ports each). So that would be 4 wires going into a 4-line telephone that only has 2 ports. Does anyone know how this could work? Or would I have to buy a new 4-line telephone with 4 ports (does such a phone exist)?

To complicate things, this is just for one desk. How would the other two 4-line phones get the connection? Does anyone know a way that all 3 desks (each having a 4-line phone) get Vonage?

Posts: 352 · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:37 pm Post subject:

You would need to tie into his current wiring and leave the phones hooked up as they are. It will take someone that is knowledgeable with phone systems.

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 07, 2008 Posts: 19

Forgetting about 3 phones for now, how would you even connect one phone? His phone only has 2 ports at the back, each capable of accepting 2 lines (so 4 lines total). If you buy 4 lines at Vonage, they'll ship you 2 phone adaptors which means 4 wires to connect (2 per adaptor). How would you connect 4 wires to the phone which only has 2 ports?

Does anyone know if you'd have to purchase a different type of phone, one which does have 4 ports at the back? Is there such a thing?

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 07, 2008 Posts: 19

The power of the internet! I might have found a solution - it's called a "modular 2 line coupler". Here's a sample of what it looks like: http://www.evaluezone.com/telephone-extension-corp-tec-340.html (I did see it cheaper at other sites though). For a 4-line phone you'd need two of these.

That answers the question about hooking up 1 phone but how about hooking of 3? I'm researching it & I'm reading about the cordless 4-line telephone. Seems interesting & could work. However, this is a business which relies on phone calls all day long which involves putting people on hold so that you could answer other callers, seeing which lines are available, etc. so I'm not sure how reliable a cordless handset would be in this aspect.

I'll probably set up a 3-way phone splitter and have each line shared 3 ways by 3 telephone cords. A 3-way phone splitter is too large to put two of them on 1 phone adapter so I'll likely have to get 4 phone adapters for the 4 phone lines (luckily Vonage sends phone adapters for free).

Any other solutions offered here have open ears!

Posts: 352 · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:30 am Post subject:

He will need to tie into his current building's phone wiring. It is already wired for multiple phones. The Vonage adapters will be tied into the building's phone wiring and then the phones will work like they do now. There should be 8 sets of wires (2 for each phone line). Instead of tying into the phones with the "Modular Couplings" that would be tied to the current phone lines. It will take someone with phone line knowledge to get it set up properly.

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 07, 2008 Posts: 19

Currently, there are 6 sets of wires (2 for each of the 3 phones). Again, each phone accepts 2 wires & each of these wires is carrying 2 lines so there's a total of 4 lines per phone. I've been reading & it seems apparent that most 4-line telephones are like this, having only 2 ports to accept 2 telephone cords.

Yes, the ideal way is to get into the building's phone wiring so you don't have to use the modular couplings & phone splitters & just use the existing jacks. But I think the most difficult task will be finding someone with the knowledge to do it. When I called Vonage customer support & started talking about 4-line telephones & jacks which support 2 lines, they thought I was from outer space. They thought I was some mad scientist experimenting with the phone lines with my own telephone inventions. I asked some of them if they even knew what a 4-line telephone was & rather than be honest & say no, they quickly tried changing topics (probably thinking the call might be recorded in which their lack of knowledge would perhaps affect their job security). Some of the calls were routed to India & the Philippines & it was obvious that the people I was talking to had never seen a 4-line telephone before. They simply told me (incorrectly) that it was not possible to use a 4-line telephone with Vonage. The calls that were routed within the U.S. or Canada at least knew what a 4-line telephone was but were unfamiliar about its exact method of operation - most people even in the U.S. & Canada who've never owned a 4-line telephone do not know that 2 phone lines can be carried by a single telephone cord coming out of a single jack. So if the Vonage customer support have no idea how to set this up with couplers & splitters, what are the chances that they would know how to do it with hardwiring? And if Vonage doesn't know, what are the chances that an outside company would? My guess is that you'd have a hard time finding someone with the know-how. And the search could cost you. Some contractors charge you a ridiculous flat rate for a visit, regardless if they solve the problem or not.

Another huge barrier is the building manager. If you use Vonage in an apartment or office building, chances are your manager will not let you touch the main wiring. That's why in the Vonage website they refer to this process as "home wiring". By the way, a way around this is to get the installation guy to wear a uniform (if he's not already wearing one) & just tell the manager he is with the phone company trying to fix your phone or add a line. You might just get away with it...

Again, it'd be great to have this hardwired so you don't have to deal with couplers & splitters but I'm only trying to be realistic.

Another aspect I didn't think about is how would the call quality be with 4 lines in use? Does anyone have any experience with multiple lines? How do the calls sound when lines are in use simultaneously?

Posts: 881 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Nov 05, 2005 Posts: 881

Outlier04 wrote:

Another aspect I didn't think about is how would the call quality be with 4 lines in use? Does anyone have any experience with multiple lines? How do the calls sound when lines are in use simultaneously?

Vonage recommends a minimum of 90 kbps of upload and download speeds. If you will be using a broadband connection which is required for Vonage, your download and upload speeds will be significantly higher than 90 kbps.

With your scenario lets say all 3 phones and their 4 lines were being utilized all at the same time making that a total of 12 lines being used at once. The total amount of bandwidth needed would be 12 lines x 90 kbps = 1080 kbps. As long as you have a good quality internet connection and sufficient bandwidth, you should not notice any degradation with your call quality. Here is a link you can use to test the download and upload speed of your internet connection: http://www.vonage.com/help_knowledgeBase_article.php?article=497&category=159

To test the overall quality of your internet connection, use the Voip speed test on this forum and it will give you a better overall view of your internet connection. http://www.vonage-forum.com/voip-speed-test.html

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 07, 2008 Posts: 19

Thanks for the reply. In our case all 3 phones will still share the 4 lines (not have their own individual 4 lines) so it'll still be 4 lines being utilized, not 12. So that's 4 lines X 90 kbps = 360 kbps which I know they have. Thanks again, you're giving me more reason to go ahead & set this up.

By the looks of it & the lack of other threads involving this topic, it doesn't seem like anyone else has tried this before. Anyone contributing to this thread could be a pioneer in setting up 4-line phones with Vonage!

Posts: 881 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Nov 05, 2005 Posts: 881

Sorry, I misunderstood the total number of lines. Since all three phones will share the 4 lines, and if the 4 lines were being used at the same time, you're correct in that a minimum of 360 kbps is what you would need.