A telecommunications apparatus includes a switching matrix. The telecommunications apparatus also includes a plurality of conductive user output locations and a plurality of conductive network input locations. For any given user output location there exists a conductive path coupling the given user output location to a corresponding network input location. The telecommunications apparatus also includes a plurality of switches. For any given conductive path, a switch is interposed therein, and each switch has a first state in which the given conductive path is unaltered, and a second state in which the given conductive path is altered, so that the given conductive path couples the corresponding user output location to the switching matrix. The aforementioned telecommunications apparatus may be networked with other such telecommunications apparatuses.