Installing Internet Phone with Cable Systems

Most cable providers that offer digital phone services insist on installing the equipment themselves. They do not necessarily use Voice over IP technology at the point where you connect to their networks. The cable company usually connects its own network interface device (NIU) on an exterior wall of your home, and telephone lines will be run into the home from there. As with installation by a telephone company, you can access a portion of the NIU to connect additional phones to your system.

Getting started with digital phone services

Most cable operators will install your service for you. This is not only a good revenue stream for those companies, but also ensures that the installation is done without significant problems. If your cable operator offers VoIP services instead of a proprietary digital phone service, or if it offers no services at all beyond Internet access, you can use the procedures outlined in the preceding sections for installing TAs and TA/gateway combinations. In this scenario, you will be using the cable operator only for Internet access; all VoIP functionality will come from your selected VoIP provider.

Managing digital phone distribution

The telephone cables in your home run either to a distribution panel inside the home or out to the telephone company's demarcation point. How you distribute digital phone service will depend on where the junctions are made.

Junctions in the NIU

If all your telephone cables run to the demarcation point, you can have them moved to the NIU. By connecting them together there, you ensure distribution throughout your home.

Distribution Panel

Some phone system installations run a single cable to a distribution panel inside the home. This panel then distributes the signal to all the phone cables for the home.

If your home is wired in this manner, you just need to get a phone cable to the distribution panel from the NIU. You'll patch it into the distribution panel in place of the cable coming in from the telephone company's demarcation point. You can find details on this process in the upcoming "Distributing the Telephone Signal" section.