Getting phone line disconnected from my apartment

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 16, 2005 Posts: 11

I live in a co-op apartment in NYC. I want to have the outside phone line disconnected from my apartment so I can utilize the wall jacks with my Vonage connection. I contacted the building and was told all of the wiring that is outside the individual units (apartments) is the responsibility of Verizon. I contacted Verizon and was told since I am not a Verizon customer, they could not schedule an appointment for me. Verizon said that Vonage has a “special” phone number that they use to contact Verizon to schedule an appointment on my behalf to disconnect the phone line from my apartment.

After being transferred no fewer than 10 times through various Vonage departments (and ultimately to the installation department) I was told that Vonage does not contact any phone company on the customers behalf and that it’s my responsibility to physically disconnect the line.

This is a high-rise apartment building. The building management said they have nothing to do with the phone lines within the building. Verizon says they cannot make appointments with non-customers and Vonage says it’s my responsibility to disconnect the line. I’m frustrated. I want to use my interior phone jacks with Vonage.

Help.

Tipsy

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 21, 2004 Posts: 13

In any case the phone line has to enter your apartment and connect to one of the wall jacks. Open the jacks and try to locate which has the feed from Verizon and disconnect it right there at the jack.

Posts: 90 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 90

That's is what I would do as well.

IN a lot of buildings, the punchblock is in an unlocked phone room.

But I would not mess with that unless you really, really know what you are doing. If you pull the wrong wire, you're neighbor's phone line will go dead.

It would be easier to find the jack in your apartment that connects to the outside line (the rest probably daisy chain from that jack) and go from there.

An alternative would be to pull all your jacks and rewire them to the black/yellow pair, or use a "line 2" adaptor on all your phones and the Linksys box (the local radio shack could help there).

Ain't technology fun? Expect the local telco to be hostile to Vonage. Wouldn't you be?

Posts: 492 · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 5:41 pm Post subject:

Tipsy,

Legally, you can not connect or disconnect any wiring that does not belong to you. You can get your tukas thrown out on the street. If you own your own home, that's one thing, you own the wires. You are a renter, you own nothing. Your neighbors are going to get upset, your landlord will get upset, Verizon will sue you for damages.

Buy some Uniden cordless phones that are expandable and buy several handsets. That is your only solution. I live in an apartment, it's spelled out in my lease that I may not play with any wiring. What does it say in yours? Here is the Vonage point of view on this subject:
http://www.vonage.com/help_knowledgeBase_article.php?article=822

You say it's a high-rise? How are you going to tell which wires are yours from all the others? Is the D-marc for your apt on the X floor, the Y floor, ground floor? How are you going to tell which ones are yours? I wouldn't even consider it. Maybe you could hire an electrician at $150+ per hour.

Sorry. Do as you please and do it at your own risk.

Posts: 90 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 90

Your local radio shack or electronics supply store sells an adaptor that looks like a 2-into-1 adaptor for an RJ-11 phone jack.

Except that it has one jack labeled "line 1" (red/green pair) and the other labeled "line 2" (black/yellow pair).

Since most apartments do not have the yellow/black lines connected, you could use such plugs and hook it up and not mess with anything.

I would still check to be sure the yellow/black was disconnected, as many folks do use 2 phone lines these days.

As for changing the wiring in the jacks, as a landlord I could care less what the tenant did, so long as they put it back the way it was when the left.

But I'm a pretty generous landlord.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 29, 2005 Posts: 5

another item you may have missed considering is if you building has a door/intecom system that uses your phone. If you disconect from the building there goes your access to the intercom.

That was an issue in my co-op so I went with the 4 handest uniden phone system. So far no problems.

Posts: 90 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 90

I'm sure Vonage does not want to recommend anything here, as tampering with internal wiring could cause problems and they do not want to be liable

And let's face it, your average salary schmoe these days can't change a light bulb without cross-threading it.

A bunch of line-2 adapters could be used without having to alter the wiring - presuming the jacks are wired with all four wires. But you'd still have to isolate the circuit. One 60V pulse from Ma Bell would take out your Vonage box.

So I guess you are either stuck with cordless phones, or running telephone cables along the baseboards.

Good Luck.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 28, 2005 Posts: 18

Tell Verizon to pound sand... Smile

Get yourself a nice set of 5.8GHz expandable cordless phones... plug the base station into the Voip router and forget that those wall outlets even exist...

As for the quality of the cordless phones.. most decent 5.8GHz units have excellent quality and won't interfere with any wireless networks you or your neighbors may be using.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2006 Posts: 3

To the original poster... did you ever get your problem solved? I'm getting ready to possibly have the same issue and I really don't want to get ANOTHER phone.

Kalla

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

Tipsy and Kallawm,

May I suggest that if you find messing with wires to be too risky, then consider robert's suggestion below. It's the easiest and "non-invasive" procedure. Important, this suggestion is assuming that you have only 1 line active in your apartment. If not, please do not do this!

robertplattbell wrote:

An alternative would be to . . . use a "line 2" adaptor on all your phones and the Linksys box (the local radio shack could help there).

That is all you would need to do is get the same number of 2-Line splitter's (Not the normal line splitters that let you share 2 phones on the same line) as you have jacks (see below for explanation and link). Then plug the 2 Line splitter into a jack near the Vonage unit. Then connect line 1 of the Vonage unit to the "Line 2" of the splitter. Now do the same with all the other splitters and the other jacks and connect all your phones to the "Line 2" of the splitters. Now you should be able to use all your internal wiring without disconnecting anything.

A 2-Line splitter is designed to be used by 2 phones on 2 separate lines. Unless you buy a specific 2-Line phone, most phones can only use 1 line. I hope this helps explain the situation.

The link below is an example of a 2-Line splitter (this particular model splits it 3 ways but other stores sell the 2 way splits).

http://www.trianglecables.com/tellinsplitl.html

the link below is an example of a regular 1-Line splitter

http://www.trianglecables.com/teldupadspli.html

Feel free to pm me if you need further clarification.