Tones and Their Meanings
As you become more familiar with your IP Telephone, you will recognize the various tones you hear in response to an incoming call or while using the handset. The chart below provides an overview of the tones you hear; check with your System Administrator to verify if the descriptions are accurate for your system. Ringing Tones accompany an incoming call. Feedback Tones are those which you hear through the handset (receiver) or the speaker.
Note: The PBX, not the telephone, generates these tones, which may be different than the list below. This difference is especially true when the PBX is outside of the United States.
Ringing Tones
Ringing (Incoming) Tones
1 Ring
2 Rings
3 Rings
Half Ring
Meaning
Call from another extension.
Call from outside or the System Administrator.
Priority call from another extension, or from an Automatic Callback call you placed.
A call is being redirected from your phone to another because Send All Calls or Call Forwarding All Calls is active.
Feedback (Handset) Tones
Busy
Call Waiting Ringback Tone
Confirmation
Coverage -
Dial
Recall Dial - - -
Reorder
Ringback
Feedback Tones
Meaning
A ringback tone with
Three short tone bursts; indicates a feature activation or cancellation has been accepted.
One short tone burst; indicates your call will be sent to another extension to be answered by a covering user.
Continuous tone indicating dialing can begin.
Alternating high and low tone indicating either a dialing error, denial of a requested service, or failure to dial within a preset interval (usually 10 seconds) after lifting the handset or dialing the previous digit.
Three shorts tone bursts followed by a steady dial tone to indicate a feature request has been accepted and dialing can start.
Fast busy tone repeated every
4620SW IP Telephone End User Guide 18 P a g e