goldstein%delni.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein dtn226-7388) (04/13/89)
In Telecom Digiest V9I134, Mark Brader <msb@sq.sq.com> says, >Subject: Automatic hook-flash >But this doesn't solve Will's problem. Will's problem wasn't that he had >trouble flashing the hook for the right length of time -- it was that the >system accepted an on-hook period longer than that length as being a flash. >False positive, not false negative, so to speak. Some sets will solve this problem! There are two different type of implementations of the timed-flash telephone. The one sold by Northern Telecom under the trademark "link" has a timed red flash button and an untimed hookswitch. But the ones sold by Comdial and Alcatel Cortelco have timed hookswitches too, typically around 2 seconds. (Comdial, then Stromberg-Carlson, made the Rolm Flashphone. Unless I'm confusing them with Cortelco, then ITT.) So the timed switchhook guarantees hangup. This could, I suppose, be viewed as a disadvantage; if you're used to flashing, you'll lose a few calls until you break yourself of the habit. But it's worthwhile. It was especially worthwhile for Rolm owners! Y'see, Rolm uses a different set of rules for feature-flashing. If you have a call on flash-hold and hang up a second call, the first call rings you back. (On most switches, like AT&T and NT, hanging up the second also disconnects the first; you flash to get back the first.) The upshot was that with ordinary untimed switchhooks, users would dial busy signals, press the switchhook, get dial tone, yak for a while, hang up, and the phone would ring back with a busy signal! Rolm's trainers didn't know why it was happening, either. Flashphones fixed it, since the switchhook guaranteed disconnect of that busy. (The flash tied up WATS trunks too, and the spurious call showed up on call detail billing.) fred