[Lab] Regulations on phones powered by the phone line?

[Michael Lechasseur]

I gather that phone manufacturers must be prohibited from selling phones 
that use the power from the phone line for anything else than talking on 
it? (I'm thinking of Caller-ID.)

1. I wanted to get a phone powered by the phone line that would work in 
a local power outage

2. It should be corded so that no one can walk it away from my desk. 
(I'm also connecting a pen by a string like in the banks!)

3. Wouldn't it be nice if it had Caller-ID so that I wouldn't have to 
answer calls for the people who keep stealing my phone and my pens?

But I'm looking around the web, and they all seem to want me to burn 
through 3-4 AA batteries every 3-6 months. I figure that the world has 
enough Duracells leaching in the landfills without me having to 
contribute any more.

Hmmph.

Maybe there's a corded phone with caller-id that plugs into AC to power 
the "features" but still works as a phone when it's unplugged from AC?