I've got the walls pretty open in a remodel right now. They had phone lines in several rooms. I'm trying to clean up the aesthetics a bit and reduce the number of unnecessary wall plates everywhere. If I've got Cat 6 and maybe a coax, is it worth retaining the phone line(s) at all?
My gut says yes, my head says no.
I'm 41. I've haven't had a land line in literally 20 years. But I suspect many people do still have landlines.
No. You only need 1 in case they want DSL to a modem or a single landline. Absolutely useless in any other room.
<<< Has literally never had my own landline, turns 40 in a couple weeks
Assuming you still want such a thing, most phone extensions are a hardwired base station plus any number of 2.4 / 5.2 gHz wireless handsets.
I would delete the 2-pair copper lines if you are trying to clean up.
z31maniac said:My gut says yes, my head says no.
I'm 41. I've haven't had a land line in literally 20 years. But I suspect many people do still have landlines.
Same. I'm 33 and have never had one in my adult life.
My inlaws no longer have a landline - they used to have 2. My parents no longer have a landline either.
I'd say if you're worried about it, keep the lines, run them to a regular outlet, but don't hook them up. Detail where the lines have been run, print it out, tape the paper to your circuit breaker box. Otherwise keep maybe 1 and move on.
I don't think so. Even if you do still have a landline, you can get one of those multi-headset cordless phones where only the base station needs to be plugged in. So the most would need is one.
Since I switched the landline over to VOIP, I picked up a 5-handset wireless to plug into the dial-tone modem. In so doing, I orphaned a slimline wall telephone in the kitchen that dated back to the 70's. People pick it up and ask if it still works. It is my dream to restore it to fully operational status.
I'll give up my landline when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!
If you absolutely have to, you should be able to reterminate the Cat 6 and run a phone signal over one of the pairs.
So, maybe just make sure you have 2 Cat 6 runs everywhere and you've managed overkill.
Nope. I added phone outlets to every bedroom and the office 15-20 years ago, to go along with the existing kitchen and living room. They've never been used, and we switched the number to VOIP a few years ago. So we still have what feels like a landline, but it's not.
My Mom and my in-laws, though, still have functional rotary phones on the walls.
I had all of the boxes removed and patched over the last time I had the house painted. Same with the coax boxes. Much cleaner. I'll never need them, can't imagine the next owner will.
I think a residential elevator needs a land line?
Phone wire - probably not, but I would run Cat 6 to every room - preferably in plastic continuous flex conduit. Especially if you have a basement. When I remodel my house, my plan is to run a conduit with a pull-line from each room where a TV or computer might go down to my basement where the router will be. If there's a change in wiring standards, pulling new wire should be easier. As good as WiFi is, wire is still faster.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
wifi can also be spotty inside a house.
I would say adding outlets at a height appropriate for wall mounted TV's would be a far greater remodel consideration. Everything has gone so far wireless that with mesh routers its inconsiquential these days.
I was just discussing this with a friend who’s debating pulling the phone wiring during a remodel.
What if, I said, in a few years, they discover a way to pipe in the meaning of life or something equally important via that wiring?
Apexcarver said:I would say adding outlets at a height appropriate for wall mounted TV's would be a far greater remodel consideration. Everything has gone so far wireless that with mesh routers its inconsiquential these days.
There will be a tv mount over the fireplace with appropriate wiring. Not planning any other TVs at this time, so the Cat 6 will probably be a single location for a router, and a run for the TV mount and that's it.
It's a pretty compact 1500sqft two story house with standard 2x4 construction. I think if I have a router near the center of the lower floor, that will be enough for me.
Can you guys even get wired phone service? It's been closed down in my area for years.
I have a land line.
Comcast offers a "triple bundle" discount and if I cancel my land line my bill increases $20.
I've been "fixing" to change all this for three years now.
IIRC,HDMI can run over CAT 5 with no loss.
Closest use of any phone type line I can see in a modern home
We moved to digital phone service, mostly because the mobile signal at home sucks.
Our cable modem comes into the house in an odd location, so plugging the phone port in the cable modem into an existing RJ-11 allowed me to use the existing phone wiring to locate the the wireless phone base unit to more convenient location. I may have had to fiddle with the wiring where the phone used to come in - been awhile, so don't remember - but I ended up with all of the jacks in the house being live. I use exactly one of them.
Can't think of another reason to keep it.
Another vote for network cable, whatever the cool CAT number is these days. Make it POE compatible and you've opened up a bunch of possibilities.
Current phone wiring could maybe be used for an intercom. We thought about that. I've also done the same thing as CJ.
My early 80's house has a beautifully constructed alcove for a phone along with a jack beside the toilet in the master bathroom. The quality of work is so good I can't bear to take it out, but we do not have a wired toilet phone.
I bet y'all pulled the hitching posts out of your yards, too, didn't you?
You could always rig up some emergency lights or other stuff in advance in case of emergency.
FYI the wires usually still have power even if you aren't a customer which brings me to another use. Most often 911 still works even if you arent paying for service.
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Get-Emergency-Power-from-a-Phone-Line/
Steve_Jones said:I had all of the boxes removed and patched over the last time I had the house painted. Same with the coax boxes. Much cleaner. I'll never need them, can't imagine the next owner will.
Yeah, the only reason I use the coax in my office is so I can have the sim rig hardwired to the router vs trying to do it over WiFi which would be terrible.
Karacticus said:If you absolutely have to, you should be able to reterminate the Cat 6 and run a phone signal over one of the pairs.
So, maybe just make sure you have 2 Cat 6 runs everywhere and you've managed overkill.
No need to reterminate them. RJ11 jack plugs right in. Run all Cat6 to a panel and then one Cat6 to the service entrance (power meter). The service Cat6 allows for twisted pair phone to the panel. Once there you can use the internal Cat6 for either phone or internet depending on if you plug it into your router or a block for the phone wires.
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