[Info-vax] US Broadband

[Scott Dorsey]

Bill Gunshannon <billg999 at cs.uofs.edu> wrote:
>In article <md7cqe$ugs$1 at speranza.aioe.org>,
>	glen herrmannsfeldt <gah at ugcs.caltech.edu> writes:
>> Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
>> 
>> It used to be that they were commonly used for burglar alarms (maybe
>> still) and that you could ask for one of those. 
>
>I never heard of any residence having a leased line for their burglar
>alarm.  They work on your regular phone line (and that is yet another
>story!!!)  I used a number of leased lines at the University when I
>first came in to do the campus network to connect buildings that we
>could not run our own cabling to because of obstructions like state
>highways.  :-)  I really doubt anyone could afford that, or justify
>the cost, for a residential connection.

The problem with using a regular phone line is that burglars cut them.

The leased line has a contact closure... the alarm system signals the
central server at 5 baud or so... when the alarm company goes for a 
minute or so without getting a signal, it sends the police.  The idea
here is that if the line is cut, the police arrive.

These days, these systems have pretty much disappeared and today we have
alarm systems with cellphones built into them, to call the police even
when the phone line has been cut.  But the circuits are still in the tariff.
--scott
-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."