Not mad at all. Just wanted to be clear, the elevator phone line is a critical component. As a building owner, it is of course your right to look in the machine room and ask questions. You just wanted to keep asking from different angles, I tried to cover them.

The phone system is actually located inside your elevator. No point in picking around in the elevator machine room, we just patch the line through to the cab there. As I stated, very clearly, ask your elevator contractor about your phones. There ARE systems that can take VOIP. Rath Microtech V and above I believe have this ability. They may be forced to take an alteration permit out though, and upgrade to the newest code, which will have phone fault requirements, so it could be expensive.

As for the 16 dollar phone line, last project manager I discussed this with told me that number. For a simple POTS line it ran him 16 bucks a month, per line.

Our industry overall is not very fond of cutting corners, as you may or may not understand. The very best of us, wants the very best equipment, for you as an owner to have. Again I do not want to imply I would tell you how to run a building, as I am not familiar with it, just remember cheaper is very often times just that, cheaper. It is not as good, not as reliable, and you usually end up paying for it in the end.