Re: How could a landline be re-routed?

["BruceR" <razrbruce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Bill Kearney wrote:
>> As for the line, it sounds like you live fairly
>> close to your office.
>
> Indeed, and serviced by the same central office.
>
>> Contrary to popular belief, there is not a single
>> pair of wires that runs from your home to the central office.
>
> In most cases there is.  Or at least from your phone to the nearest
> SLC.
>
Actually the pair from your home to the CO is a collection of pairs
connected to one another. Pair from house to street cable connected at
pole or underground pedestal. The street cable is connected to a larger
cable that runs along a major street and so on to create a single pair
back to the CO. Of course, that's the old fashoned way. Now you are
likely to be connected to a fibre concentrator well before hitting the
CO.

>> Your line  could have been assigned a pair that was not dead at the
>> other end.
>
> Um, what?  Of course it's /supposed to/ be a single pair for the
> line.  At least in most set ups.  What are you talking about here?

What I mean is this:  Let's say that I live at 123 Maple St. and you
live at 234 Maple St. There is a 100 pair cable serving the street. I
have a phone number that comes to me on pair 57 of that cable but I have
it disconnected because I'm happy using just my cellphone now.  You
order a new line from the telco. They assign your number to what is now
a vacant pair on that cable, pair 57. The installer connects your drop
cable to pair 57 at the pedestal and voila, you have phone service.  If
I leave my old dead phone plugged in and the installer doesn't stop at
my place to disconnect my drop from pair 57 then I too have your new
phone number working at my place.  This happens far more often than the
telcos will admit.  It is a real problem in office buildings.  I can't
tell you how often I've found other companies lines appearing in a suite
that isn't theirs.