Do telephone lines carry any electric current, enough to electrocute a person?

Question

Someone told me years ago that, even though telephone lines usually don't carry any electric current, that they DO when a call is coming on. And so, if you were to touch an unsheathed telephone line, or do something of the sort, when a call was coming in, you could get electrocuted. Is this true? Do telephone lines EVER carry any electric current, or at least enough to electrocute a person?

Answer 1

There is voltage in a telephone line. When you dial a phone number, the voltage increases in the line, which makes the phones ring. You can get shocked a little bit if you work on an active telephone line, but it cannot hurt you in any way, like electrical wiring can.

Answer 2

sure there's a electric powered and magnetic field around the present carrying conductor. Air may additionally habit (very week conductivity) electrical energy. because of the fact, an perfect insulator ought to have resistance of infinity, yet almost no longer something as endless resistance. so there is leakage of electric powered filed around the conductor. The voltage is progressively decreased around the conductor and contains 0. Thats easily relies upon on the voltage interior the conductor.

Answer 3

sure you can get a shock...



when the phone is ringing there is 90VAC on the line..

when the phone is "on hook" (hung up) there is -48VDC

when the phone is "off hook" (picked up) there is ~9VDC



there is very little current going thru a phone line, you will rarely feel any type of shock on an off hook phone line.. you will normally only feel a light shock on an on hook phone line if your fingers are wet/sweaty... you will normally feel a shock if touching a ringing phone line... the shock is not sufficient to cause any damage..



when you get to AML or SLIC circuits that carry over 100V then that is where you can get a real shock, but these circuits are not normally accessible with out getting into a telephone terminal..

Answer 4

There is always a voltage and a current present.

Both increase when a call comes in.

Whether you can be electrocuted at any time depends on point to point body resistance. Resistance decreases when you are wet, increasing the chance of electrocution.