Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 24 Jun 91 16:03:00 GMT From: Dick Rawson Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Operator Busy Break-In Now Costs $1.60 Message-ID: Organization: BT North America (Tymnet) Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 486, Message 5 of 12 Lines: 21 Am I really required to hang up on my current call and accept an incoming call ... just because the caller claimed to the operator that there is an emergency? I had only understood that I was required to make shared telephone facilities available to someone else who declared an emergency. Dick [Moderator's Note: But the person trying to get through to you would in effect be sharing your phone line with you. You are free to do as you please in a declared emergency, but if *you* are wrong and *they* choose to make an issue of it, then you lose. What if the person calling claimed to be a police officer, hospital clerk, etc? Would you risk it? Bear in mind if *they* are just BS'ing around, you've a perfect right and ethical reason to complain to authorities. Any declared emergency should be treated as such until proven otherwise; then if proven to be deliberatly malicious, dealt with severely. PAT]