[comp.dcom.telecom] Call Waiting Override

jpr@rutgers.edu (Jean-Pierre Radley) (10/18/89)

Sorry, I know this be an old topic. Am I correct that *70 is not the
universal method to override call waiting, that different telcos have
other codes or methods?


Jean-Pierre Radley					      jpr@jpradley.uucp
New York, NY					      72160.1341@compuserve.com

[Moderator's Note: You are correct. Some use 70#; most allow use of 1170
for rotary dial phones, and sometimes 1170 will work from touchtone lines
as well. Some CO's using older generics don't even have this option. An
example is Morton Grove, IL; about the only place in the Chicago area
without this capability.  David Tamkin, is that correct?   PT]

gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (George Wang) (10/21/89)

>[Moderator's Note: You are correct. Some use 70#; most allow use of 1170
>for rotary dial phones, and sometimes 1170 will work from touchtone lines
>as well. Some CO's using older generics don't even have this option. An
>example is Morton Grove, IL; about the only place in the Chicago area
>without this capability.  David Tamkin, is that correct?   PT]

Well, I'm not Dave, but I do know from first hand experience that
Morton Grove's switching station does NOT allow call waiting override
with *70.... Although I live in Skokie, Skokie is spilt into service
by Skokie's switching station and Morton Grove's switching station...
Unfortunately, we got stuck with Morton Grove's switching station and
using the modem with call waiting is a real pain!!  Disconnects
galore!! BTW, does anyone know why Morton Grove doesn't have this
ability?? Does it have to do with the station's switching technology??

Is there anything we can do as telephone service customers?
A petition? Hmmmm......


George Wang
University of Illinois
gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us (David W. Tamkin) (10/22/89)

In volume 9, issue 463, Jean-Pierre Radley asks:

| Sorry, I know this be an old topic. Am I correct that *70 is not the
| universal method to override call waiting, that different telcos have
| other codes or methods?

and Patrick Townson replies:

| [Moderator's Note: You are correct. Some use 70#; most allow use of 1170
| for rotary dial phones, and sometimes 1170 will work from touchtone lines
| as well. Some CO's using older generics don't even have this option. An
| example is Morton Grove, IL; about the only place in the Chicago area
| without this capability.  David Tamkin, is that correct?   PT]

Patrick asked me because I live in the same city as he but have a
different local telco with a few differences in the way custom calling
features are implemented.  For example, where he lives Illinois Bell
has call waiting superseding hunt-from.  A second call into a
hunt-from line with call waiting will give the call waiting beep
instead of hunting; if call waiting has been overridden, however, it
will hunt.  But where I live, Centel has hunt-from superseding call
waiting, and call waiting is useless on any line in a rotary except
the last one.

I'm not sure that overriding call waiting is still unavailable in
Morton Grove.  Anyhow, here is the way the codes work from Centel
phones in northeastern Illinois (except from Des Plaines prefixes 298
and 82[VAnderbilt]7, on which custom calling and equal access are not
yet available: customers wishing equal access or custom calling
features must get a new phone number):

x below is just what you expect: 0 to suspend call waiting, 2 to
establish call forwarding, 3 to terminate call forwarding, 4 to
program Speed Call 8 [Centel prefers the terms "Speed Call" and "Touch
Call" to those used by BOC's], 5 to program Speed Call 30; n is a
digit from 2 through 5:

7x <pause> works, tone or pulse
117x works, tone or pulse, but 1170 sits and thinks for several seconds
first

Tone only:
7x# works, even for 70#
*7n works, but *70 returns fast busy (!)
#70 suspends call waiting; otherwise #7n returns fast busy

It seems that *70 was misprogrammed by Centel as #70.

One thing I have noticed with call forwarding here is that you can
pull it off without getting charged for the set-up call.  If you dial
72# (or *72, or 1172, or whatever) and the number to forward to and
get no answer (because you hung up before the party COULD answer, with
luck before they heard ringing) and then do it a second time, then on
the second try Centel does not connect you; it simply gives confirming
beeps and a fresh dialtone, and call forwarding functions.

Sometime in the last month they reprogrammed call forwarding to work
when the forwarding line is busy with an outgong call, even if it
doesn't have call waiting or if call waiting is suspended, and for 72#
and its variants to return fast busy if call forwarding is already in
effect (you have to cancel the previous forwarding number with 73#
first).

David W. Tamkin     dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us   {attctc,netsys}!jolnet!dattier
P. O. Box 813  Rosemont, Illinois  60018-0813   (708) 518-6769  (312) 693-0591
BIX: dattier  GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN  CIS: 73720,1570   The opinions above are mine.

[Moderator's Note: I think the reason the use of '1170' causes the
network to sit and wait for more input is because of the various 7x
codes, 70 is the only one which could conceivably be an area code. 71
isn't used. Telco figures some people hit the '1' twice by accident,
intending to dial 1-70x-yyy-zzzz. So on 1170 it waits to see what else
you have in mind.  PT]