TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Party Line Dialing, was Re: Telephone Area Codes and Prefixes


Re: Party Line Dialing, was Re: Telephone Area Codes and Prefixes


Robert Bonomi (bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com)
Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:43:09 -0000

In article <telecom26.50.5@telecom-digest.org>, TELECOM Digest Editor
noted in response to <Wesrock@aol.com>:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Am I correct in thinking that all
> party-line subscribers were geographically close to each other (such
> as a few doors away, or across the alley?) Were they nearly or always
> on the same cable out of the central office? Or were there party line
> subscribers across town from each other? PAT]

Originally, party lines were intended to conserve wire-pairs.

As such the parties were served off the same trunk cable. Usually the
same wire-pair all the way to the customer premises. It would have
been possible, albeit unlikely, for the parties to be on separate
'feeder' cables to a concentration point, and shared a single wire
pair only from the concentration point back to the C.O.

They didn't have to be in 'immediate' proximity to each other, they
could be anywhere a 'multiple' tap on that cable pair existed.

In the 'late days' of part-line use, when the only users were those
who were grandfathered in on a 'discontinued' tariff, it was _not_
uncommon to find the 'parties' in wildly different physical locations,
with each on their own dedicated pair, all the way from the C.O. to
the C.P.

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Matt Simpson: "Re: Party Line Dialing, was Re: Telephone Area Codes and Prefixes"
Go to Previous message: Carl Navarro: "Re: Party Line Dialing, was Re: Telephone Area Codes and Prefixes"
May be in reply to: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com: "Party Line Dialing, was Re: Telephone Area Codes and Prefixes"
Next in thread: Matt Simpson: "Re: Party Line Dialing, was Re: Telephone Area Codes and Prefixes"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page