What type of cable is used for telephone voice connection?

[DCP_1]

Install is next week. I want to put the RG next to my computer where there is no phone line. I have existing coax that goes up the wall behind the computer which can be used to service TV's. Can this coax also be used to connect the telephone wiring in the attic for voice service? If I need to run another wire in the wall to the attic, I assume that I just run telephone wire, correct?

Thanks.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

No, coax cannot be used for voice service.  The single coax cable can be used for both the input from the NID as well as the output to the TVs by using a diplexer, but voice service must run over a cable that terminates in an RJ11 jack (either Cat3 phone cable or Cat5e).

I would go ahead and run 2 Cat5e cables if you're going to run cable - this will give you and the installer maximum flexibility.

[DCP_1]

Thank you very much.

[moracity]

Are you sure about that? My understanding is that the RJ11 cable is only needed to backfeed the dial tone to all of the wall jacks. If you don't need that, you just plug your phone directly to the RG. It seems silly have to use another line.

My HR is over coax and I am considering adding voice, but I have no phone line near my RG (next to TV). I couldn't install my RG in the study because there is a coax splitter somewhere in the line to my study, which required the RG to be installed in the family room and left my main computer in the study to go wireless.  

I have Vonage and no land line at all. If RJ11 is required as you say, I will not be able to add voice - at least not without paying someone to run RJ11 to where my RG is. AT&T certainly won't do it for free. Since my home already had coax they would not even consider running CAT5 for my initial install, so it's unlikely they would do it for a voice install. It's surprising to see how many people seemed to be able to get new CAT5 run for their installs.

[tlc4texas]

You are correct the RJ-11 is used to feed other jacks in the house.  If you do not use any other jacks, then the feed from NIC via coax to RG is all that is necessary.

[moracity]

Well, I've had internet and tv for over a year and it's been fantastic. Even the initial installation was a breeze. I realize that not everyone has had this experience. I've never had an outage and,  in the ATL market, u-verse is the best deal for my needs. I came from Comcast, which I never had a problem with either, but u-verse was simply cheaper. However, the quality of calls through Vonage seems to have deteriorated over the past couple months. The cost difference between vonage and u-verse voice is a wash and I have no particular attachment to Vonage. The only feature I would really miss is emailed voice mails. Of course, the unified mailbox makes up for that. I do like the fact that u-verse is generally compatible w/ security systems and on the private network. I've been using alarm.com since we dumped the land line 5 years ago, which gives me remote web access to my alarm system, as well as an iphone app. It was the only option back then for no land line.

Anyway, it's good to know that the RJ11 line back to the NID is not required for Voice. 

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=voice_setup&view=by_date_ascending&message.id=2768...

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AustinTexas wrote:
I don't recommend getting it unless you want to wait 10-12 days without service or longer since i still have no service yet: tv, internet, phones in addition to having 5 technicians come out and spending 4 hours each. 

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[Dave218_1]

While it is correct that you can plug a phone directly into the back of the RG, it has to be understood that by doing so, all of your phone jacks in the house will be dead lines, no dialtone to any of them. I personally don't like to install customers that way. I would rather backfeed to a walljack, that way if the customer has more then just the cordless phone system in their house, any phone jack will be available for use. If you only have the one cordless base and all other handsets are remotes off of this base, then yes there is nothing wrong with going straight out of the RG to the base. Remember that none of the wall jacks in the house will receive dialtone this way though.