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Taking callers during contests; 15 sec to allow Telco to drop line?

M

mbrg

We've recently concluded we need to allow at least 15 sec between answering contest lines because IF the caller does not hang up he/she will still be on the line.

We have a 1990's Lucent Partner system (18 lines) as the buildings phones. Telos One, Symetrix and Zercom as the hybrids in the studios attached to these phones.

i.e; if we take a caller on Line 1, tell them they are not the correct caller, go to Line 2 tell them they are not the correct caller and then go back to Line 1 that same caller will still be on Line 1 IF they haven't disconnected on their end and its been within 15 seconds.

I think I can rule out the Lucent phones system since we tried it on independent lines for Fax and remote control that are direct pairs into the building. It takes 15 sec for us to hold down the cradle switch till we force a disconnect if that caller hasn't hung up.

Is this a matter of some clever callers knowing not to hang up and the Telco switching not disconnecting soon enough?

We are Verizon hereabouts. Would they have an answer?
 
In Phone lingo, this is CPH, or calling party hold. Years ago, some switching centers (Know as step offices) could hold up a called line indefinitely. With the advent of electronic offices, this is a programmed feature in most cases, and afaik, this is at the option of the phone company and the capabilities of the specific switch. I have been out of the business for a long time...but this is the way it used to be. And, yes, your supplier should be able to advise you their policy. Cheers...JBI (if you are lucky enough to talk to someone who knows....Press one for....)
 
jboyd has it right. We are with AT&T, formerly Ameritech. About 10 years ago, when we set up our studio/contest lines, we wanted to use only three lines in the hunt group, yet have them reset so fast that the jocks would never be held up cycling through the lines on the way to the nth caller. Ameritech engineering in Chicago was able to get those three lines to reset in three seconds. The system, which still uses the original Gentner TS612, has worked flawlessly to this day. Whether Verizon or other suppliers can provide this service is the question; it's certainly worth the call.
 
Haw, Another modern digital headache. Bring back crossbar and true DC signaling. :p
 
Thanks all. So the delay to disconnect probably happened gradually over the years as the digital "improvements" took place...

Not enuf of an issue to look into the VOIP/Telco services is it?
 
The feature goes back to, at least, the 1970s. The theory is that you might answer the closest phone when someone calls, but you might prefer to talk on a second phone in a more comfortable location. Thus you could tell the calling party to hold on while you hang up the phone and dashed to pick up another. This saves you from having to leave the first phone off the hook and then go back to hang it up after picking up the second. The advent of digital is actually an improvement because now the telco can program the feature on individual lines.
 
Or... If you have enough lines to justify the initial cost and effort to get everything programmed yourself, have your lines delivered in bulk via T1 and install your own channel bank, such as one of these:

http://www.rhinoequipment.com/products/54

Neat box that solved a problem I once had with dropout timing (too little vs. too much). You may have to get JBoyd to help translate all of the Telco-specific terms and jargon, though :)
 
Long ago, the 'choke exchanges' (239 in Indy for example) assigned a call forwarding number (239-9797) which directed to the 'real' number (684-1234 or whatever). Those real numbers were tightly guarded secrets as any contestant with the real number could bypass the choke & be at a huge advantage. Is that loophole still in existence today?
 
BobOnTheJob said:
Long ago, the 'choke exchanges' (239 in Indy for example) assigned a call forwarding number (239-9797) which directed to the 'real' number (684-1234 or whatever). Those real numbers were tightly guarded secrets as any contestant with the real number could bypass the choke & be at a huge advantage. Is that loophole still in existence today?
Click to expand...

It might be. There are a lot of Chicago stations that still use the 591 exchange, probably as a choke point.
 
Tom Wells said:
Haw, Another modern digital headache. Bring back crossbar and true DC signaling. :p
Click to expand...

Mabel could pull them plugs out of the switch panel faster than that!
 
In my years with the phone company, they still had local boards (manual) and you could pick up the phone (No Dial) and say "I want the drug store on main street" and the phone
would ring immediately! OR...if you knew the number, the operator would sometimes say " She is talking to her Momma..it will be a while"..or better, if you did not want to wake the baby...just ask the operator to "touch" the ringer....and we live in a better day?
Anybody old enough to remember those days? JBI
 
yahhhh.... 'fraid so.

As I understand it, Port Townsend, WA was one of the last two towns in the state to convert to dial... a nice crossbar system. Everyone got new phones, whether the old ones had dials or not.

The manual boards worked just as you said... you could ask the operator for most any well-known place, and she wouldn't need the number.

One other nice thing about the conversion... Bell put in a lot of carrier gear in the outlands, pulling many of us off the party lines we endured under the old system.
 
Operators knew what all the hot gossip was in town,they listened in on calls.Those girls were having too much fun! I dated a Bell South operator,boy did she have the stories.Wish i could have aired a few of them:)
 
Right about the party lines...up to 8 customers sharing one line...and you hear 4 of the rings on your phone,,,BAD! and lots oif eavesdropping...don't say anything you don't want the neighbors to know! ( Circa 1952) Rural Mississippi....
 
My ears still ring! I could have brought all kind of people down,doctors,lawyers,politicians,etc.And phone sex was poplar back then,too.Mercy if only the public knew what was going on!! Kinda gives Reach Out and Touch a different meaning!!
 
Oldies: if it was on a party line...LOTS of people knew!. BUT: It was a firing offense if a telephone employee revealed ANY conversation he overheard on the phone line...and some paid the price!...it was a "secrecy of communication" pledge you signed.
 
Bell South had excellent employees as well..Always a few that liked adventure.I think we better let this sleeping dog go back to sleep!!Cheers...
 
That delay was something that would crop up occasionally. Usually when Mountain Bell, later Qwest, would change their switch. If a line was part of a rotory set of number it was supposed to be provisioned without that feature.

With the advent of the digital switches came a whole list of options. One that would get us in trouble was the no-answer call-back. Let's say a listener calls in the evening & no-one answeres the phone (voice tracked). As soon as someone in the studio picked up the line it would call that person that didn't get an answer, Bad if it was 5 AM.
 
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