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From: jmiller@wendy.bgsu.edu (Jim Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Dialing Own Number Brings a Surprise
Message-ID: <15089@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 30 Nov 90 00:07:05 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 855, Message 5 of 11


In issue 852 of the Digest, Brian McMahon writes:

>          No problem, I thought, I'll just dial my own number.  Much
>to my surprise, instead of the expected busy tones, I got a recording
>approximately like this: "You have dialled a party on your own line.
>Please hang up to allow the other phone to ring."  (This is an inexact
>quote from memory, but you get the idea.)
>(BTW, this is GTE territory, area code 515.)

>Can someone explain to this poor telecom-illiterate in the hinterland why
>the H*ll things are set up this way?  Is the switch really incapable of
>distinguishing between a private and a party line?

I am also located in GTE territory, area code 419.  I do not know what
model switch I am on, but it provides features such as call waiting
and call forwarding. I also have some 'extended' features, like 'busy
number redial' and 'saved number redial'.  My switch replies in the
same way as yours with reference to dialing your own number - just
hang up and you get a ringback.  Besides the obvious usefulness on a
party line, I imagine this is provided as a (free) FEATURE to those
with private lines: it is a rudimentary intercom.  By being able to
ring back your own line, it allows you (in the house) to ring an
extension phone (which might be out in the workshop, at the pool deck
or in the upstairs dining room).

>[Moderator's Note: Whoever wishes to answer Brian's questions can
>answer one for me also: How come if I have call-waiting on my line
>dialing my own number does not produce a call-waiting signal instead
>of a busy signal?  I notice if I go out of my CO to do it, i.e. I use
>my phone to dial my 800 number which comes back to ring on the same
>line then I *do* get a call-waiting signal. Likewise a call to
>10835-1-700-my number goes out to Telecom*USA, comes back and gives me
>a call-wwaiting signal. Dialing my own number direct returns busy.
>Why?  PAT]

Pat - I cannot answer your question, but something similar seems to
happen on my switch: If I dial the local weather number and get a busy
signal, then flash and dial the SAME NUMBER AGAIN on the 'three-way'
dialtone, I get a fast busy (after a long delay).  Maybe the switch
notices that the call I just attempted is to the same number as the
first (busy) call? Could the behavior we are seeing be due to the fact
that the call originates and terminates in the same switch, without
ever leaving the CO?  Maybe the switch has more 'knowledge' about such
an intra-CO call.

This brings up two questions I have.  First, I tried one time to use
the 'busy number redial' on the abovementioned weather number.  No
luck - I get a fast busy indicating it can't be done.  This weather
number is in the same town, served by GTE, on a regular exchange (ie
not a 'choke' exchange).  Upon further investigation, and after
talking to a CO technician, I am told that 'busy number redial' is not
usable on a 'number with multiple lines'.  I assume this means I can't
use it when the target number is part of a hunt group?  Why?  Second,
from the features I have described above, does it sound like I am on a
switch that is already set up to supply things like Caller-ID,
call-trace, return-call, and the related features?  Could GTE enable
these if they obtained proper tariffs from the PUC?


/* Jim Miller             jmiller@wendy.bgsu.edu */