basics on landline telephones , anil kumar lines , an expert in landline telephone industry

Basic principles

Schematic of a landline telephone installation.

A traditional landline telephone system, also known as plain old telephone service (POTS), commonly carries both control and audio signals on the same twisted pair (C in diagram) of insulated wires, the telephone line. The control and signaling equipment consists of three components, the ringer, the hookswitch, and a dial. The ringer, or beeper, light or other device (A7), alerts the user to incoming calls. The hookswitch signals to the central office that the user has picked up the handset to either answer a call or initiate a call. A dial, if present, is used by the subscriber to transmit a telephone number to the central office when initiating a call. Until the 1960s dials used almost exclusively the rotary technology, which was replaced by dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) with pushbutton telephones (A4).

A major expense of wire-line telephone service is the outside wire plant. Telephones transmit both the incoming and outgoing speech signals on a single pair of wires. A twisted pair line rejects electromagnetic interference (EMI) and crosstalk better than a single wire or an untwisted pair. The strong outgoing speech signal from the microphone (transmitter) does not overpower the weaker incoming speaker (receiver) signal with sidetone because a hybrid coil (A3) and other components compensate the imbalance. The junction box (B) arrests lightning (B2) and adjusts the line's resistance (B1) to maximize the signal power for the line length. Telephones have similar adjustments for inside line lengths (A8). The line voltages are negative compared to earth, to reduce galvanic corrosion. Negative voltage attracts positive metal ions toward the wires.