Knowledge Base
Distributing Ooma Dialtone to All Phone Jacks
You can use Ooma Telo to distribute dialtone to all phone jacks in your home, allowing you to use multiple phones with Ooma. This is possible if either:
- Your landline (connection to the Central Office) is disconnected OR
- You still have a landline connected and your home phone wiring is using two pairs cabling.
This advanced setup requires disconnecting your home phone wiring from your telephone company before connecting it to Ooma Telo.
Note: Because this configuration requires you to disconnect your home wiring from the telephone company, you will not be able to make or receive phone calls, including 911 calls, if your Internet service is down or your power is out.
Note: If your landline is still connected and your phone wiring uses only one pair, then you cannot have home distribution in your home.
Remember that by using your phones with Home Distribution, you will not be able to experience all the Ooma advanced features such as Instant Second Line, Private Handset, Private Voicemail, Personal Numbers, you should instead use Ooma Telo Handsets to experience the full range of Ooma advanced features.
First possible and most common set up: landline disconnected
You must make sure that your landline has been disconnected. Call your former phone company to confirm.If the landline is still connected, the Ooma Telo may get damaged and it may void your warranty.
Second possible set up: landline connected and home phone wiring has two pairs of cables
In most cases, home phone wirings use only single-pair cabling. In such cases, trying to set up a home distribution while your home phone wiring is still connected to the Central Office (landline connected) may damage your Ooma Telo and may create unexpected behavior of your phones and a risk of fire.
However, if your home phone wiring uses two or more cable pairs (if you have any doubt, you should have a licensed technician to confirm), one pair (or physical line 1) is connected to the Central Office (your landline connection), the other pair (or physical line 2) must not be connected to the Central Office, nor a PBX, nor a key system—this spare line 2 can then be used for the home distribution.
Important: Use of the terms physical line 1 and physical line 2 is used only for explanation here. In your case, your wiring could be the other way around; for example, line 2 is connected to your Central Office and line 1 is the spare line.
If both pairs are wired to each phone wall jack in your house, a “two-line splitter” must be used to connect your Ooma Telo and phones to the spare line. You must use a “two-line splitter” and not a “duplex splitter”—the latter connects two devices to the same line which is not what you need for this purpose. Unless you know what you are doing, we recommend that you have a licensed technician set up your home distribution phone network.
Here are a few web links to learn more about home phone wirings.
