Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 15:49:53 EDT From: Guy R Berentsen Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Operator Busy Break-In Now Costs $1.60 Message-ID: Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories 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 496, Message 7 of 7 Lines: 22 In article , colnet!res@cis.ohio-state. edu (Rob Stampfli) writes: > Suppose the line is being used by a modem. I wonder what the operator > has been instructed to do in this case. Does the operator "listen" > first so as not to disturb the modem, or do they arbitrarily drop the > call? If they don't drop the call, what do they tell the intended > caller? (Mentioning that a modem is in use is, in my mind, giving > away details about the call in progress.) > [Moderator's Note: When the operator is asked to 'verify busy' or > interupt a call, they will first listen on the line only for a second > or two to detirmine the status. A single word or two of conversation Pat, you correctly described what should happen, but in practice I have had at least two data calls terminated when an operator attempted to "busy line verify" my home phone. (I know this is what happened because in both of the confirmed cases my sister-in-law called from New York minutes after the call was disconnected. She told us that she had called the operator to have the line checked.)