jtatum@gnh-porthole.cts.com (Jamie Tatum) (12/25/90)
I was talking to an operator the other day regarding emergency call interrupt. She said that SNET (Southern New England Telephone) has been having problems with phreaks abusing emergency call interrupt. The way our emergency call interrupt works is (due to privacy reasons I think ...) the person who wants to interrupt calls the operator and says they want to make an emergency call interrupt to xxx-yyyy. The operator says okay; then you hang up. You have to call back the nuber you wanted to call and by this time, the operator will have kicked them off whatever they were on. You can see how this may have become a problem. Does anyone know what they would do in a data call? INET: jtatum@gnh-porthole.cts.com UUCP: crash!pnet01!gnh-porthole!jtatum ARPA: crash!pnet01!gnh-porthole!jtatum@nosc.mil [Moderator's Note: I would like to point out that in every jurisdiction, the law plainly says that failure to yield a telephone line in an emergency when asked to do so is a crime. But the same law goes on to say that when you falsely claim an emergency exists in order to influence the use of a telephone line you have also committed a crime. I'm surprised SNET is as sloppy about this procedure as you claim. Illinois Bell operators handle it differently: If a caller asks for an emergency interrupt, the operator notes their number, and asks for the person's name. The operator then splits the connection and goes on the busy line to listen for conversation. If none is heard, the operator reports the line is now clear. If conversation is heard, the operator breaks in to say (person's name) at (person's number) claims there is an emergency and needs to reach this line. Will you give up the line? That person says yes or no, and the operator returns to the other side of the connection and replies accordingly. Only if they agree to yield will the operator instruct the emergency caller to re-dial the call at that time. *And your request is logged in telco's records of people who have requested this sort of thing.* No game-playing here with so-called emergencies. Either it is or it is not; if it is not then you may find your service suspended until you go down to the Business Office and explain yourself. PAT]