Have you ever wondered why when dialing a number on a mobile phone you hear beeps, but at home on a stationary device - clicks? Or why, when dialing an additional prefix in the support service, they tell us: "Make sure that the phone's tone mode is turned on"? But what is it and how to activate it?
To begin with, we note that the telephone network is, first of all, an electric circuit, and the tone mode is one of its parameters. There is a generator on the PBX, which generates electric current, and the telephone opens and closes this circuit. When you pick up the phone to make a call, current is applied to the telephone membrane. Then you hear a distinctive beep.
Pulse and tone mode are two ways in which information about what number you have dialed can be transmitted to the PBX. When you dial a number in pulse mode, you hear clicks. Their number depends on the number you pressed. Therefore, when dialing one, we hear one click, and when dialing zero, ten.
This method of dialing the desired number is most often used on older PBXs, but most landlines are automatically set to it. The main advantage of the pulse dialing is the possibility of its implementation without modern electronic circuits, and the disadvantages are the long dialing and the absence of the "hash" and "asterisk" symbols. That is why tone dialing was developed in the 1960s.
This mode involves assigning each digit a certain frequency - a tone. People with a good ear for music, perhaps, will even be able to determine which number was dialed by hearing such a signal. Tone mode is automatically used in mobile phones, and in landline phones, most often you will have to press the star, the Tone key, or select a certain menu option to activate it. Of course, this does not apply to old rotary phones. However, switching the phone to tone mode does not guarantee anything, because only the most modern digital or cellular networks support it.
They are in every major city, so you can easily become their subscriber. If your network supports tone dialling, you will still need to contact your landline operator to sign up for this service and the additional features associated with it. For example, caller ID and blocking calls from certain subscribers.
One moreAn interesting feature available when tone mode is connected is the ability to hold a call. So you can always answer an important call, and your constant employment will not annoy your friends and colleagues.
When using tone dialing, be aware that the associated extras are often billed separately and must be supported by your desk phone model.
In a word, today there are two dialing modes: tone and pulse. Tone mode is more modern and is used by default in mobile phones, which allows their owners to use a number of features of modern networks. In addition, it does not have the disadvantages of the "old" pulse dial.
