Forum Topic

landline query

Does anyone know if landline providers cut off the call if the line has inadvertently been left open after a call, or is it just left open?

Barbara Shillabeer ● 1326d4 Comments

Normally if a phone is left off the hook on a closed circuit after a few minutes the exchange sends an audio signal to try and warn the subscriber that the phone is off the hook and not able to receive incoming calls.

Michael Ixer ● 1325d

Michael thank you so much  Rarely use my landline and was horrified to see it had been 'live' for 7 hours 45 mins  Don't think my bank statement would have looked good after that!

Barbara Shillabeer ● 1325d

Searching the internet the protocol seems to be as follows. Calls are always terminated when the caller hangs up. If the person being called hangs up but the caller doesn't then the call isn't terminated immediately but a timeout process is started. The call is closed after the timeout period is reached; that period is set in the exchange.  Originally this was set to several minutes but BT were supposed to be reducing this to something in the order of ten seconds. This was to make it more difficult to fool people into returning calls to scammers pretending to phone from banks, etc. So, yes, provided one end hangs up the line should be closed after a short period. 

Michael Ixer ● 1326d

I thought it cut off after a certain time, but if the other person cuts off, it should go dead.

Barbara Stevens ● 1326d