Automatic ring back
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Automatic ring back is a service offered by phone companies. Normally, when you call someone and their line is busy, you have to call back every few minutes to check if their line is free yet. With automatic ring back, you just dial a code (*66 in some places). Then, when their line is free, your phone rings with a distinctive ring (so you know it is automatic ring back and not a regular call). When you pick it up, it calls the other number since the line is now free.
A prank that was sometimes used was for a person to dial the number from which they are calling. This number would be busy (if the person does not have voice mail). They would hang up, then dial the automatic ring-back number. The system would then promise to call them back once the number became free. As soon as they hung up, their number was now free, and the system would then ring their own number. The prank caller would allow whoever was around (the victim) to answer the ringing phone. When they answered, the switch would attempt to call back their number (which is now busy), and would report that the number had become busy, a computerized version of lather, rinse, repeat. The victim, puzzled, would hang up, whereupon the phone would ring again, attempting to reconnect them to the number they had asked to be connected to (that phone) resulting in an endless cycle for the next 30 minutes. Later changes in the design caused the system to abandon attempts to reconnect if the number was busy when the callback was attempted.
In the UK the service is also known as: Ringback and may be a chargeable service, Please check with your telephone provider.
UK Specific information
Ring Back lets customers set up a call to an engaged number when it is free. It will monitor the number for the next 45 minutes until both the calling customer and the busy number are free.
UK Specific - Ring Back Instructions
Set up: Press ‘5’ when you hear the engaged tone.
- To check: *#37#.
- To cancel all Ring Backs: #37#.
- To cancel individual Ring Back: #37*[telephone number]#.
NOTE: Customers can only cancel Ring Back from Multi Frequency (MF) or TouchTone phones.