Does anyone know of a cheap home phone service?

My home phone configuration, hard to explain...?

• I have no idea about these things, but how would i go about doing this? In our home, we have 7 Phones (one in each room - wall mounted) When someone rings our home phone number, all the phones ring, until someone answers one, the rest stop ringing. I want to know how i could phone one of those certain phones. So say im in the kitchen, what would i need to do so i could ring the kids bedroom phone?... all of the phones are just connected to the BT Phone line at the front of the house, we put all of the wires to them in a cupboard :S I know i sound like a total n00b because i dont know what its called, Intercom? Internal calls? you know what i mean? we have several phones, lets call them A, B, C, D... What if i want to call phone D from phone A? Or im at phone B, and i want to call phone D. All on the same phone line... I know you can do this because at hotels etc, you can phone eatch other's rooms etc, im sure its called Internal calling... Anyway, Anyone know what id need to buy to do this, a part, a service i sign up to from BT? E-Mail: [email protected]

• Answer:

  This works in a hotel and other businesses because the phones individually connect to a PBX (private branch exchange, sort of like a mini phone company). You could probably find a small PBX that supports a small number of phones to do this. For the phone company to do this (without adding additional lines) would only be a distinctive ring or something. All the phones connected in parallel will ring at the same time. You could also just put in an intercom system or find combination phone/intercom units. I found this example with a simple internet search: http://www.quantometrix.com/intercom_systems_for_home/intercom_systems_for_home.htm