Hi everyone.

I am about to move into my new apartment and I have just received my new Swisscom Fixnet phone number for my new home. Interesting enough, Swisscomm suggests me to hire an electro-installation guy to make the installation. I already have a swiss ISDN phone and as far as I am concerned it should be as easy as plugging in my ISDN phone to the new phone jack in my new apartment. Why would I need to pay to an installation guy?? is there anything that involves special codification, installation etc.? anyone with experience?

If the place is wired for Analogue then you're hosed. If the place is wired for ISDN, you're in luck.

An electrician will charge you just short of 400 francs to switch from one to the other.

Do be aware that the next renter [of the apartment] will allow you to pay for the switch back from ISDN - do you really want ISDN? I had to pay to switch back when I moved out of my last place.

I am using ISDN in my current apartment. Iam trying to find out if my new apartment has ISDN or not. If it already has, will it be as simple as just plugging in my ISDN phone and start using my new number? or is there some condification process needed?

I am sure I can easily do the conversion stuff myself to convert analogue signals to digital. Electrician would charge me 400 + the cost for convertor too.

It is extremely likely that the new place is only wired for EconomyLINE - do you really want MultiLINE?

The changes the electrician makes are a little re-wiring and one or more new face-plates so that your ISDN RJ connector can go directly into the wall.

The apartment I am moving into was built in 2004 so i expect it to have a digital line already implemented. However I will check.

What I am wondering is, if my new home has a digital line already wired, will it be as simple as plugging in my ISDN phone to wall plug and start using my new number?

The offer I got from Swisscom is MULTINET

yes, it should be as simple as that (if the termination is set for ISDN).

But build-year is absolutely nothing to do with this "digital" line - the cables are indentical - it's the termination that makes the difference between ISDN and an "analogue" line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISDN (a reference for those wondering what ISDN is)

Being an electrician i think i can tell u that apartements are never pre cabled for a digital instalation, (costs more than an analog instal.)
You should be able to put it in yourself if you understand how to wire in your ISDN box (NT). One question, are you using just an ISDN telephone or analog telephone/fax too ?