this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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An old one.
It made sense when everyone had landlines. Buzzer in a multi-unit building rings the phone in reach unit. Door intercom used to talk to the occupant, and usually they could control door access by hitting '9' or whatever to unlock the door and admit whoever was there.
Saved the building from needing to have a separate intercom system wired to every unit, just use the phone lines that are already going to be there.
Fast forward a few decades, land lines are gone, everyone has a cell, and if more than one person lives in a unit the person with the one the door rings might be out and the person at home has no way to admit people, while the person elsewhere still has to answer door calls.
On the upside(?), it allowed us to be extremely sure that UPS was lying to us when they told us they tried to deliver and no one answered the door. Had them tell us that several times with no missed calls on the phone. :P
Why did they not just put a dedicated door answering phone disguised as a doorbel in the apartments? Why am I even asking probably because it would cost money.
I'm not sure what you mean by "disguised as a doorbell". It's for controlled access buildings where you need to be able to talk to the person at the door and selectively admit them.
Well I understand that. I meant to make it look like an intercom while the inside is basically just a landline.
Because the whole fucking reason was to reduce costs, since everyone is going to have a landline anyway.
My building is like this, it was built in the 60s the concept of multiple phones in a house hold was completely unthinkable at the time.
I fucking know. I meant why did they not do that after landlines stopped being used.