Tones and Their Meanings
Ringing tones are produced by an incoming call. Handset tones are those which
you hear through the handset (receiver) or speakerphone.

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 from an Automatic Callback
call you placed.
●ring-ping (half ring) — A call redirected from your voice/data terminal to
another because Send All Calls or Call Forwarding All Calls is active.

Handset Tones

●busy signal — A low-pitched tone repeated 60 times a minute; indicates the
number dialed is in use.
●confirmation tone — Two rising tones; indicates a feature activation or
cancellation has been accepted.
●coverage tone — One short burst of tone; indicates your call will be sent to
another extension to be answered by a covering user.
●
●
●
●
dial tone
— A continuous tone; indicates dialing can begin.
error beep
— One beep; alerts you that you pressed an invalid softkey.
error tone
— An alternating high and low tone; indicates a dialing error, a denial
of the service requested, or a failure to dial within a preset interval (usually 10
seconds) after lifting the handset or dialing the previous digit.
intercept tone/time-out tone
— An alternating high and low tone; indicates a
dialing error, a denial of the service requested, or a failure to dial within a preset
interval (usually 10 seconds) after lifting the handset or dialing the previous
digit.
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
local error tone
— A steady low tone; indicates an incorrect button press.
programming tone
— A low continuous tone when you are in programming mode
with switch features (programming an Abbreviated Dialing button).
recall dial tone
— Three short bursts of tone followed by a steady dial tone;
indicates 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.
self-test tone
— Periodic tones; indicates the voice/data terminal is continuing to
perform a self-test.
speakerphone reset tones
— A rising set of tones; indicates the speakerphone is
adjusting itself to the surrounding room acoustics.
19