Tones and Their Meanings, Ringing Tones

Tones and Their Meanings

Ringing tones are produced by an incoming call. Feedback tones are those that you hear through the handset (receiver) or speaker.

Ringing Tones

1 ring — A call from another extension.

2 rings — A call from outside or from the attendant.

3 rings — A priority call from another extension, or a call from an Automatic Callback call you previously placed.

half ring — A call redirected from your voice terminal to another because Send All Calls or Call Forwarding — Follow Me is active.

intercom ring — A call directed to you by the Intercom feature.

Feedback Tones

busy tone — A low-pitched tone repeated 60 times a minute; indicates the number dialed is in use.

call-waiting ringback tone — A ringback tone with a lower-pitched signal at the end; indicates the extension called is busy, but the called party has been given a call-waiting tone.

confirmation tone — 3 short bursts of tone; indicates a feature activation or cancellation has been accepted.

coverage tone — 1 long burst of tone; indicates that your call will be sent to another extension to be answered by a covering user.

dial tone — A continuous tone; indicates that dialing can begin.

intercept/time-out tone — An alternating high and low tone; indicates a dialing error, a denial of the requested service, or a failure to dial within a preset interval (usually 10 seconds) after lifting the handset or dialing the previous digit.

recall dial tone — 3 short bursts of tone followed by a steady dial tone; indicates that the feature request has been accepted and dialing can begin.

reorder tone — A fast-busy tone repeated 120 times a minute; indicates all trunks are busy.

ringback tone — A low-pitched tone repeated 15 times a minute; indicates the number dialed is being rung.