HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Need extra help installing your Ooma Hub or Telo system? Let us know.
JKBoston
Posts:6
Joined:Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am
HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by JKBoston » Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:03 am

We were told this would work prior to purchasing the OOMA.
Each Telephone jack has 2 pairs ( 4 wires)
Our desire is to isolate the OOMA off a single pair and distribute dial tone across the home wiring. These two wires would need to be disconnected from the local telephone company (Verizon)
We have a POTS single line running off the second pair. Office line
This we believed would allow isolation for OOMA and the POTS line to be used with a 2 line phone system.
Any advice, clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Groundhound
Posts:2711
Joined:Sat May 23, 2009 9:28 am
Location:Atlanta, GA

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by Groundhound » Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:05 am

JKBoston wrote:We were told this would work prior to purchasing the OOMA.
Each Telephone jack has 2 pairs ( 4 wires)
Our desire is to isolate the OOMA off a single pair and distribute dial tone across the home wiring. These two wires would need to be disconnected from the local telephone company (Verizon)
We have a POTS single line running off the second pair. Office line
This we believed would allow isolation for OOMA and the POTS line to be used with a 2 line phone system.
Any advice, clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Yes, your Ooma phone port would feed dialtone to the isolated pair; and you could use a two line phone to access both pairs.

User avatar
caseybea
Posts:197
Joined:Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:52 am

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by caseybea » Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:38 am

Isolating the pairs is easily do-able-- you just need the right adapter.

You want a few of THESE: http://www.pccables.com/02301.htm
(available at many other places, including probably your local radio shack)

An example setup:

Your landline (Ma Bell, whatever) that you want to keep connected to one phone is connected into your telephone wiring using the first pair of wires. By default, that is Line 1. (The second pair in a phone block is Line 2, etc).

At the phone jack location where the Ooma is, plug in one of these splitters. Connect the PHONE port to the L2 jack.
At any other location in the home where you want dial-tone from ooma, plug in a splitter, and plug the telephone into L2.

voila.

You can do it the other way around-- you simply need a clear understanding as to which pair(s) are connected to what.

If you happen to have a "2 line phone" - with the above setup, use the sample splitter but plug the 2-line phone into the shared port. Voila-- Ma-Bell on line 1, ooma on line 2.

If I mis-understood your question, let me know and I can clarify.
Ooma Hub customer since January 2010
Telo2 upgrade (hub retired) October 2016
Service Level: Core

JKBoston
Posts:6
Joined:Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by JKBoston » Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:56 am

This is great news. Thanks for the quick response.
Any tips on isolating the line (used for OOMA) where it enters my home. Or do I need to do anything?
JK

Groundhound
Posts:2711
Joined:Sat May 23, 2009 9:28 am
Location:Atlanta, GA

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by Groundhound » Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:02 pm

JKBoston wrote:This is great news. Thanks for the quick response.
Any tips on isolating the line (used for OOMA) where it enters my home. Or do I need to do anything?
JK
In your Telco demarc box there should be a modular plug connection for the pair you want to isolate, just unplug it.

JKBoston
Posts:6
Joined:Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by JKBoston » Thu Jan 21, 2010 3:09 pm

I was able to find the FIOS interface in my basement and isolate the line the no longer connected to the phone company.
See enclosed. I tested the modular jack and pulled the connections for the pair.
I segmented the jack lines with a splitter and connect the OOMA to the wall (no phone connected to the OOMa) I do not get a dial tone.
Thoughts on what I may be doing wrong.

Thanks again for all your help.
Attachments
FIOSBox2.jpg
FIos Interface
FIOSBox2.jpg (85.75KiB)Viewed 5669 times

murphy
Posts:7554
Joined:Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:49 pm
Location:Pennsylvania

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by murphy » Thu Jan 21, 2010 3:21 pm

That picture is too blurry to be of any use.
Did you connect the ooma phone jack to the wall?
The ooma wall jack does not feed dial tone.
Customer since January 2009
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx

JKBoston
Posts:6
Joined:Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by JKBoston » Thu Jan 21, 2010 4:02 pm

I traced the phone line coming from the outside Telco box thru the basement wall and fed to the FIOS panel. The Fiber Optic cable also feeds in to this cable. After the telephone line feeds thru the wall the (Consist of 4 pairs of wires / 8 total wires) are spliced. the blue and blue and white (Isolated disconnected line) splits off to another telephone line which runs under a finished basement. Since I have Isolate this pair as the OOMA line should I snip the connection at the splice for the 2 identified wires which will carry the OOMA dial tone?

JKBoston
Posts:6
Joined:Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by JKBoston » Thu Jan 21, 2010 4:08 pm

Yes I did connect the OOMA wall jack to the wall. Sorry for the blurry picture the original prior to upload was fine.
Attachments
FIos3.jpg
FIos3.jpg (13.28KiB)Viewed 5659 times

JKBoston
Posts:6
Joined:Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am

Re: HELP Can OOMA Telco share a land line by isolating the pairs

Post by JKBoston » Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:53 am

Thanks for everyones help. I got this working late last night.

Works great.

OOMA support needs to educate their tech support team that this installation deployment works.
I spoke to tier 1 and tier 2 support and both were adamant this could not work.

Post Reply