RE: Telephones for rural or retreat use.

First:  To run a "Private Branch" telephone system, which is what a
        telephone system that would service more than one family or
        multiple buildings would require approval of your state Public
        Utilities Commission approval.  I'll give you three guesses how
        easily and cheap that would be to obtain.

John I've been asked this question several times before and have
struggled with a good answer and solution.  The crux of the problem over
an above what I'm going to touch on here, revolves around PBX and EPBX
and their use of proprietary equipment thru out the system.

The problems that present themselves when a private phone system is
contemplated are few, simple and damm hard to get around.
        1) Obtaining a simple, but flexible switch.
        2) Getting cable installed, either overhead or underground.
        3) Getting the proper type and size of cable.

The one fact that must be kept clearly in mind, the primary costs in
providing telephone service is not in the headend and local switch
gear, it's the cable and it's installation.

For example, a few years ago I helped design and install a "intercom,
telephone and paging" system for a surface mine in Arizona.   The
typical distance between phones and the headend was 5 miles.  The system
featured a 4 links( number of simultaneous conversations that can go on
at the same time) and 49 station telephone switch.  It had solar powered
retranmitters and solar power supplies at the remote stations to produce
ringing voltage back a the switch.  If my memory services the telephone
switch, phones was $7900.00, retransmitters and power supplies were
$11,000.00 and the cable cost $32,000.00.  We didn't install the cable
so I don't know what the ower actually paid, but our estimate was
$120,000.

One telephone device that I have always thought had potential is the
"add on intercom" systems, but I have never taken the time to look and
experiment with them. They as a rule are less fussy about the type of
power supply and the amount of current that it takes to make them work.
They also tend to be inexpensive, a 1 link, 19 station system would cost
$625.00, local instruments $35.00.  This type of system when powered by
a good quality power supply could have phones 4000 to 5000 ft away and
still work properly.  The biggest problem/drawback that "Telephone
Intercoms" have is most are single link and not expandable.

With any type of communication system the problem is distance, trying to
produce enough voltage to ring a bell and operate the phone at the
remote location.  The struggle with any type of phone system is
providing the desired "loop resistance", which forces you to balance
between distance and cable size.  This is one of the reasons that
telco's have been so aggressively toward fiber optic cable, "NO LINE
LOSS" and light is easier to send long distances that electrical
impulses.  It's problem is Very VERY expensive.

I haven't looked at the current small "Telephone & Intercom" marketplace
in couple of years.  I promise to :

        1) Write a short primer on telephone systems and catch words
        2) Write a review on what I perceive a suitable systems in the
           retreat/survival/rual use.