Twisted:

I was only referring to residential applications in my prior rampage. I know that it's a whole lot different in a commercial environment, especially in a "star" configuration. That's a whole lot more wire than a traditional residential loop that hits four or five outlets.

Yes, the Bell companies, if they will even install inside wiring anymore, install only twisted-pair on new installations. So would I. I spoke of extending existing residential wiring, that's all. There is a major difference here; maybe I should have been more specific. Sorry about that one!

I still have a hard time understanding how two phone numbers can travel through thousands of feet, often miles of "CAT NOTHING" outside plant cable, with hundreds of other circuits under the same jacket. Yet all of a sudden when it comes inside the building, the hundred or so feet of unpaired cable causes these circuits to interfere with each other!

I still say cheapo one-, two- or four-line phones cause inbalance on the pairs resulting in amplification of any potential for crosstalk. Switch hooks that only open one side of the line is a classic example. The more phones sharing the same lines, the more line inbalance is created. This makes crosstalk much more noticable.

Help me here Ken and Bill!

Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX