Hills Home Hub Owner’s Manual
Page 15 of 37
REN and RN – Ringer Equivalence Number
When connecting telephone and faxes you need to be careful of something called “REN”
or “Ringer Equivalence Number”. In Australia it has a value of
3
. In New Zealand it is
abbreviated to “RN” and has a value of
5
.
This basically is the maximum number of phones, faxes, ADSL filters, dialup modems or
telecommunications equipment that you can connect in your home. Your equipment
should have the REN (or RN) printed on the bottom of it or in the user manual it came with.
Most telephones have a REN of 1. This means that at any one time you cannot connect
more than 3 telephones in your home (if each is rated at REN 1) even if, for example, you
have 16 telephone sockets. Just
add up the RENs
of all the equipment you want to
connect and make sure it is no more than 3 in Australia, and no more than 5 in New
Zealand.
REN and RN apply to
each
telephone line.
If you exceed this number then some equipment may not work. For example, the
phone might not ring!
If you connect too many devices just unplug some devices until you have a total REN of 3
or less (5 for New Zealand).
If you require more phones simultaneously connected, try adding cordless phones or
consider purchasing a Hills PABX for a Small Office/Home Office (SOHO), which supports
up to 16 simultaneous phones.
This limit does not apply with data-only equipment (e.g computers, routers) which are
connected on the customer’s side of an approved modem.
Connecting Phone & Data - Technical Terms
