Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!texbell!attctc!vector!telecom-gateway From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Poor Man's Intercom Message-ID: Date: 12 Nov 89 17:15:39 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 29 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 506, message 4 of 10 In article , HGSCHULZ@cs.umass.edu (Henning Schulzrinne) writes: > By accident I discovered a way to use the phone for in-house calls: > Dial your own number and hang up immediately after the last digit. All > phones in the house will ring and (hopefully) the person you wanted to > talk will pick it up. Is this a special "feature" of our exchange (we > are part of tiny Granby Telephone Company in Western Mass.) or does > that work everywhere? This is something that must be purposely engineered into the CO switch (it doesn't just happen). It is generally found in "Ma and Pa" telephone companies (and GTE) due to the high percentage of party lines in the system. As you might guess, it's used to enable party line neighbors to call each other. You dial your party line neighbor's number, hang up, then lift the receiver when the ringing stops (the switch rings both of you), or if it appears that there is no answer. This "feature" is generally not enabled in metro areas, where there are few, if any, party lines. In fact, Pac*Bell currently has a ring back code that you can subscribe to (for a monthly charge, of course) so that you can do exactly what you describe above--have a poor man's intercom. Given Pac*Bell's money-grubbing tendancies, I'm surprised the ring-back service isn't timed and measured. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !