 | This article does not cite any sources .(February 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
Status tones are short tones that are generated and placed on the telephone line while a call is being initiated, while it is being conducted, and while it is being monitored by a third party to inform all on the line of an active or defined event.
A user with call waiting service will hear double beeps on the line when another party is calling to their phone, but the recipient is actively engaged on the line. The call waiting tone is known as a "Feature" in some Telephone communities, and is billed by the Telephone Company as an Enhanced Service.
Other examples include:
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into electronic signals that are transmitted via cables and other communication channels to another telephone which reproduces the sound to the receiving user. The term is derived from Greek: τῆλε and φωνή, together meaning distant voice. A common short form of the term is phone, which has been in use since the early 20th century.
Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term phreak is a sensational spelling of the word freak with the ph- from phone, and may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. Phreak, phreaker, or phone phreak are names used for and by individuals who participate in phreaking.
A pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknowledge, reply to, and originate messages using an internal transmitter.
The answering machine, answerphone or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone, or telephone answering device (TAD), is used for answering telephones and recording callers' messages. If a phone rings a predetermined number of times by the phone's owner, and nobody is present to answer the incoming call, the answering machine will activate and play either a generic announcement or the voice of the person being called announcing that nobody is able to come to the phone at the moment. Following the announcement is a beeping tone which enables the caller to record his or her message after the tone concludes.
A busy signal in telephony is an audible call-progress tone or visual signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection of that particular telephone call.
A dialer or dialler is an electronic device that is connected to a telephone line to monitor the dialed numbers and alter them to seamlessly provide services that otherwise require lengthy National or International access codes to be dialed. A dialer automatically inserts and modifies the numbers depending on the time of day, country or area code dialed, allowing the user to subscribe to the service providers who offer the best rates. For example, a dialer could be programmed to use one service provider for international calls and another for cellular calls. This process is known as prefix insertion or least cost routing. A line powered dialer does not need any external power but instead takes the power it needs from the telephone line.
A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party.
Call waiting is a telecommunication service offered by a telephone service provider to a subscriber by which the subscriber may suspend a telephone call already in progress to accept a second call. The subscriber may switch between calls, typically by using the hook flash signal.
Call forwarding, or call diversion, is a telephony feature of some telephone switching systems which redirects a telephone call to another destination, which may be, for example, a mobile or another telephone number where the desired called party is available. Call forwarding was invented by Ernest J. Bonanno. In North America, the forwarded line usually rings once to remind the customer using call forwarding that the call is being redirected. More consistently, the forwarded line indicates its condition by stutter dial tone. Call forwarding typically can redirect incoming calls to any other domestic telephone number, but the owner of the forwarded line must pay any toll charges for forwarded calls. Call forwarding is often enabled by dialing *72 followed by the telephone number to which calls should be forwarded. Once someone answers, call forwarding is in effect. If no one answers or the line is busy, the dialing sequence must be repeated to effect call forwarding. Call forwarding is disabled by dialing *73. This feature requires a subscription from the telephone company. Also available in some areas is Remote Access to call forwarding, which permit the control over call forwarding from telephones other than the subscriber's telephone. VOIP and cable telephone systems also often allow call forwarding to be set up and directed via their web portals.
A beep is a short, single tone, typically high-pitched, generally made by a computer or other machine. The term has its origin in onomatopoeia. The word "beep-beep" is recorded for the noise of a car horn in 1929, and the modern usage of "beep" for a high-pitched tone is attributed to Arthur C. Clarke in 1951.
A speaking clock or talking clock is a live or recorded human voice service, usually accessed by telephone, that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observatory, on 14 February 1933.
Hook flash or flash is a button on a telephone that simulates quickly hanging up then picking up again. This action can signal the telephone exchange to do something. A common use of a hook flash is to switch to another incoming call with the call waiting service. Another use is to indicate a request for voice conferencing, for example, a user may use a procedure like the following to initiate three-way calling:
The reorder tone, also known as the fast busy tone, or the congestion tone, or all trunks busy (ATB) tone is an audible call progress tone in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) that is returned to a calling party to indicate that the call cannot be processed through the network.
Ringing tone is a signaling tone in telecommunication that is heard by the originator of a telephone call while the destination terminal is alerting the receiving party. Audible ringing is typically a repeated tone that is not necessarily synchronous with the cadence of the power ringing signal that is sent to the called party.
A loop line or loop around is a telephone company test circuit. The circuit has two associated phone numbers. When one side of the loop is called, the caller receives a test tone of approximately 1000 Hz. When the second number is called, it produces dead silence, but the party on side A hears the milliwatt test tone drop, and is connected to the person on side B. The purpose of the loop around test is to allow circuit testing to a distant central office without needing a person at the far end. The technician can send a tone down either line and measure the response tone on the second line to determine the path loss parameters.
Telephone call recording laws are laws that govern the privacy of telephone communications, including the recording of conversations. Recording of private are usually covered by distinct laws.
In telecommunication, supervision is the monitoring of a telecommunication circuit for telephony to convey to an operator, user, or a switching system, information about the operational state of the circuit. The typical operational states of trunks and lines are the idle and busy states, seizure, and disconnect. The states are indicated by various electrical signals and electrical conditions depending of the type of circuit, the type of terminating equipment, and the type of intended service.
1-5-7-1 is the name of a family of calling features in the United Kingdom, for residential and business telephone lines and for mobile telephones, that are provided by BT Group and several other telephone service providers. The family is named after the telephone number 1571, the special service number that is used to access it. Call Minder is the name of BT's highest level of 1571 service.
Telephone numbers in Russia are under a unified numbering plan with Kazakhstan, both of which share the international code +7. Historically, +7 was used as the country calling code for all of the Soviet Union. Following the Soviet break-up, all of its former republics, save for Russia and Kazakhstan, switched to new country codes. Following Abkhazia's secession from Georgia, Abkhazia switched to the Russian telephone codes +7 840 for landlines and +7 940 for mobile phones, though it still can be reached via the Georgian telephone code +995 44. Following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the Republic of Crimea switched to the Russian telephone codes +7 978 for mobile phones and +7 365 for landlines, while the city of Sevastopol switched to the codes +7 978 for mobile phones and +7 869 for landlines, since 7 May 2015.
A telephone exchange or telephone switch is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital systems to establish telephone calls between subscribers.