
Careful now folks... Also consider the 90VAC+ @20Hz that is forced on ring
and tip when the phone's supposed to ring!  Even with a simple zener
and LED setup, you might end up with some carbon real quick.  Whatever
scheme you use, make sure you've got at least 200V-rated components on 
the frontend.

Also remember that, if I'm not mistaken, the phone line is a 600ohm
equivalent circuit.  Any current you draw from the 48V or so gets
dropped across that 600ohms.  That's fine until you're down to roughly
12V, when Ma Bell considers it to be off-hook.  But dropping it that
far down is probably a big no-no.

The easiest implementation to accomplish the above??

    tip  ------->|-----\/\/\/\-----+----------+
              rectifier  resistor  |          |
              diode                |          \ 
                                   V          /
                          zener  /---/        \  resistor
                                   |          /
                                   |          |
                                   |          V   LED
                                   |         ---
                                   |          |
    ring --------------------------+----------+

This is only a suggestion...go ahead and blow holes in it, but you
get the idea.  Choose a high-efficiency LED so you don't need much
current to get it to light up.  Choose values for the other components
as required.