You had to have multiple jacks, because the phone cord was only so long. No one wants to go running through the house to get to the phone before it stops ringing.

Are they not building houses with phone jacks anymore? I mean, I know “no one” has a landline, but not even the wiring?

I use encryption whenever I can not so They can’t see my ops, but so that the encrypted comms of people who actually do need opsec are less suspicious.