Re: Presidential telephones (was Obama's phone...) [Telecom]

Wouldn't less " > The POTUS' c > Maybe if he starts getting calls from charities and > political campaigns (!) he will fix the Do Not Call > rules...

My question is: how is that Blackberry connected to the rest of the world? Is it a plain old 202 cell number? Is it a pseudo-extension off the White House PBX? Is it an access line (or whatever it's called) off the GETS network?

For that matter, how about the landlines in the President's office?

Whatever they are, I doubt that any of them can be reached from the outside world by dialing

+1 202 XXX XXXX. The Pres certainly wouldn't be getting calls from charities and political campaigns.

Neal McLain

***** Moderator's Note *****

I don't know about the presidential blackberry: however it connects to the outside world, I'm still hoping that it's being read by a subaltern who will deflect unimportant emails. I already spoke my piece about that.

The landlines in the president's office are ordinary telephone lines from the White House PBX. The instruments are standard models, reliable, easy to repair, and as mundane as you'll see anywhere.

You may reach the White House switchboard by dialing 202-456-1111. If you know today's code word, you'll be connected to a west wing employee in a second. The President's calls are, of course, screned by one of his aides.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

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Neal McLain
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Historically, high level people have private phone lines in their office, in addition to regular lines going through the switchboard or centrex. The regular lines are screened by staff, but the private line is usually direct and answered only by the person. It's obviously a number given out only to close associates. The private line may be a separate telephone set or an appearance in a keyset. Certainly someone very high up may have multiple private lines in a tiered arrangement, that is, perhaps a line for use only by family members, another line by equally high level people who need immediate access, etc.

Our school system had a 'private' network between principals and downtown. It was a separate phone (red) in the principal's office and only he answered it, if he was out the phone was left unanswered.

One major civic leader, Robert Moses of New York, kept a simple system. His phone was plain, all calls went through his secretary, screened, and forwarded to him one at a time. He was powerful enough to have "dibs" on the earliest mobile phones, but he always rejected those, using his car time to work uninterupted (he was always chaufuerred).

In histories there is mention of people calling and being called by Moses at home in the evening (as was the case for many high level people), which makes me wonder what kind of home phone system such people had. I suppose many such people had household staff to answer the phone and screen calls. I suspect that too have tiers of home phones, some lines were on the office switchboard, etc.

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hancock4

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