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From: tell@oscar.cs.unc.edu (Stephen Tell)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: How Were Telephone Sounds Chosen?
Message-ID: <2061@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 11 Dec 89 05:13:25 GMT
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Reply-To: tell@oscar.cs.unc.edu (Stephen Tell)
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 568, message 6 of 13


A related question on choice of tone signals:
Has anyone else noticed that a lot of people in the "general public"
(non-telecom-junkies) can't tell the difference between a busy and
a reorder, or maybe don't know to listen for the difference in
interuption rate?

I'm still in touch with a lot of people at Duke University, where I used
to be a student, but now I'm just beyond the area that is a local call
for people on campus.  It has happened many times that someone has tried
to call me from a restricted campus phone (local-only, like a public
non-coin phone), and complained "Your line is always busy."

The Duke phone system (their own 5ESS) gives reorder for this case, also for
the case of dialing only 7D when 1+7D is required.  The latter may be more the
problem, since GTE in Durham (around Duke, off-campus) doesn't want the
leading 1.

I explain "that's not a busy signal" and get funny looks from people who
never heard of reorder, but I wonder how many calls I miss this way?
(Perhaps this is an item for RISKS?)


Steve Tell					tell@cs.unc.edu
CS Grad Student, UNC Chapel Hill.
Former video guy, Duke Union Community Television, Durham, NC.