SHARED COMMON IN-HOUSE WIRING TO PERMIT MULTIPLE TELEPHONE CARRIERS TO SERVE THE SAME CUSTOMER

摘要

A system to allow two or more telephone carriers to automatically connect to existing in-house telephone wiring (10) wherein the choice of carrier is made by the calling party. Service is provided on a default basis by a primary carrier (24), however, the user can select and cause an alternative carrier to be connected to the in-house wiring permitting the use of standard telephone equipment (12-20) with different carriers at the option of the calling party. In this system the switching arrangement is such that only one carrier is connected to the in-house wiring at any one time. Additionally, there is provision to detect incoming calls from carriers other than the default primary carrier and to switch to that carrier in response to the incoming call. Further, this system permits the packetization of outgoing information and the receipt of packetized incoming information on the secondary carrier (28) with standard telephone equipment that is connected to the in-house wiring.