Miscellaneous Tips

Telecom Mania

Following are the most common (but not universal) service codes for telephones.  Your service's codes may vary, but these are the ones you'll run into most often.

Call Waiting 

When you are on a call and hear a tone signaling that you have another caller, to answer the incoming call, press the telephone switchhook for one second. This will also place the first call on hold. Press the switchhook again to return to the first call.

To disable call waiting before making a call, dial *70, then wait for a dial tone, and immediately dial the number.  Anyone who calls your number will then hear a normal busy signal until you hang up.  Call waiting will be reactivated for the next call, unless you disable it again with *70.

The customer will need to dial *70 before dialing an Internet provider through a modem. For special instructions, the customer should contact her Internet provider.

Want to save money each month on your phone bills? 
Click here for unlimited local and long distance starting at $16/month!

Call Forwarding 

Call forwarding allows you to transfer all incoming calls to another number automatically.  To activate it, pick up the phone, listen for a dial tone, and dial 72#, then dial the number you want your calls forwarded to.  If the line is busy or is not answered, call forwarding is not activated, but repeat the procedure to make it so.  

Cancel call forwarding by picking up the phone and dialing 73#.  Listen for two short tones followed by a dial tone, and call forwarding has been turned off.

Three-Way Calling 

Three-way calling (or conference calling) allows you to add a third party to a conversation or place a second outgoing call privately.

To activate three-way calling, call the first person and put him/her on hold by pressing the switchhook for one second. Wait for a dial tone, then enter the number of the second person you'd like to add to the conversation. When the person answers, you can talk privately before adding the first person back to the conversation. Press the switchhook for one second to add the first person. Now all three people will be on the line at the same time. To disconnect either caller, ask one caller to simply hang up. You may then converse with the remaining person. When you hang up, all callers will be disconnected.

Call Return 

Call return lets you place a call to the telephone number associated with the most recent call received, whether or not the call was answered. You may be offered the chance to dial another code to have the number automatically dialed, but in some areas, the number will be announced, then dialed, without further input from you.  To activate call return, dial *69.

Some phone systems will keep trying to dial the number if the line is busy.  When the line is free, you'll hear a special ring to alert you, and the call will be redialed when you pick up.  To cancel this feature, dial *89.

To activate Call Return: Pick up the telephone and listen for dial tone. Press *69. The number of the last call you received will be called back and you will hear it ringing or you may hear a recorded message telling you that the line is busy.

Caller ID 

Caller ID identifies the number (and name, when available) of the caller before the call is answered, as well as the date and time of each call received. You'll require special display equipment for this, of course.

You can keep your number from showing up on someone else's caller ID by using per call blocking (*67).  It'll need to be dialed before each call for which you want to block caller ID information being sent.

If you have per-line block on your phone line, so that "Anonymous Call" shows up on any caller ID you call, you can disable this by call with *82.  Some phone lines block unidentified callers, so in order to get through if you have per-line blocking, you'll need to dial the *82 code.

Zodsquad.com Home Page