it means, you can plug your main phone line to that board and use the outgoing phone port from it to your normal phones. It can protect any electrical surge from phone line also. If you dont have phone line, it is of no use to you.

What you said is exactly how I thought it would work. But why would it say “free phone line included”? That makes no sense!! I’ll just let it go as one of those things….

Although it “looks” like a good product, it is not that great of a surge protector.

On a listed surge protector, you should find a couple of ratings. Look for:

Clamping voltage - This tells you what voltage will cause the MOVs to conduct electricity to the ground line. A lower clamping voltage indicates better protection. There are three levels of protection in the UL rating — 330 V, 400 V and 500 V. Generally, a clamping voltage more than 400 V is too high.

Energy absorption/dissipation - This rating, given in joules, tells you how much energy the surge protector can absorb before it fails. A higher number indicates greater protection. Look for a protector that is at least rated at 200 to 400 joules. For better protection, look for a rating of 600 joules or more.

Response time - Surge protectors don’t kick in immediately; there is a very slight delay as they respond to the power surge. A longer response time tells you that your computer (or other equipment) will be exposed to the surge for a greater amount of time. Look for a surge protector that responds in less than one nanosecond.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/surge-protector7.htm

The one COTD is selling is:

Less than 2 ns for response time

Less than 700 for clamping

I emailed them about the phone line and got the following reply

It means a phone cable. You can see it in the diagram.

phone cable and phone line are too different things…. oh well at least I have my answer.