lagasse@biomed.UUCP (Robert C. Lagasse) (10/23/85)
Maybe I should have posted this to the telecom group. But, here
goes......... Whenever you dial a long distance number yourself, such as
0-986-2345, and then wait a few seconds, you hear an eerie, fading,
boiiinnngggggg sound somewhat like an electronic gong, which makes it sound
like your call has just been transported light years away through a time
warp. Then, either the operator comes on ("beeeeep...can I help you?") or a
recorded voice asks you to enter your calling card number. Now, just what
is this eerie sound and why is it generated? Does its tone actually do
something within the system, or is it generated for the sole purpose of
letting a caller know that they have entered long distance never-never land?
Thanks for any reply. Bob Lagassedsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc) (10/24/85)
In about 99.5 % of cases I have found, the thing which sounds like a dial tone fading off into the distance is your cue to start punching in your credit card number with a DTMF pad. The minute you hit a key it stops. Of course, it must time out eventually and connect you to the operator for those people with pulse dialing. I have observed in some exchanges that dialing a "1" "0" will connect the operator immediately... is there any significance to this? David Anthony Chief Development Engineer DataSpan, Inc (and now, Anson County's only radio station, WADE) .
ron@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (10/24/85)
> goes......... Whenever you dial a long distance number yourself, such as > 0-986-2345, and then wait a few seconds, you hear an eerie, fading, > boiiinnngggggg sound somewhat like an electronic gong, which makes it sound This lets you know that you are connected to one of the more brilliant long distance connections and lets you know that you can now enter your credit card number or hit zero for a live operator without having to have the line timeout. -Ron