Have you ever wondered why, when dialing a number on a mobile phone, you hear beeps and clicks at home on a stationary device? 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. At the PBX there is a generator that generates electric current, and the telephone sets open and close this circuit. When you pick up the phone to make a call, current flows to the telephone membrane. Then you hear a characteristic beep.
Pulse and tone modes are two methods by which information can be transmitted to the PBX about what number you dialed. When you dial in pulsed mode, you hear clicks. Their number depends on the number you clicked. Therefore, when typing a unit, we hear one click, and when typing zero, ten.
This method of dialing the desired number is most often used on older PBXs, but most landlines are automatically tuned to it. The main advantage of pulse dialing is considered the possibility of its implementation without modern electronic circuits, and the drawbacks are the long dialing and the absence of the symbols "pound" and "asterisk". That is why in the 60s of the last century, a dial tone mode was developed.
This mode involves assigning each digit a specific frequency - tone. People with 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 to connect it you will have to press the “star”, the “Tone” key or select a specific menu option. Of course, this does not apply to old
disk phones. However, switching the phone to
tone mode still 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 dialing, you will still have to contact your landline operator to activate this service, as well as additional functions related to it. For example, caller ID and blocking calls from certain subscribers.
Another 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 friends and colleagues will not be annoyed by your constant employment.
Using the dial tone mode, remember that additional services associated with it are often paid separately and must be supported by your model of stationary device.
In a word, today there are two dialing modes: tone and pulse. The tone mode is more modern and is used by default in mobile phones, which allows their owners to use a number of functions of modern networks. Moreover, it does not have the disadvantages of the “old” pulse dialing.