Cisco Systems 7960G, 7940G warranty Using a Shared Line, Understanding Shared Lines

Using a Shared Line

Your system administrator might assign a “shared” phone line to you. Typically, a shared line has two main uses:

•One person uses multiple phones—For example, your shared line is assigned to both your desk phone and a lab phone. An incoming call to the shared line rings on both phones and you can use either phone to answer the call.

•Multiple people share a line—For example, you are one of many people who can handle incoming calls on the shared line, or you are a manager who shares an extension number with your assistant.

Understanding Shared Lines

Remote-in-Use

If you have a shared line, you might see the remote-in-use icon on your phone screen: . This icon indicates that a co-worker is currently using the shared line. You can place and receive calls as usual on a shared line, even when the remote-in-use icon appears.

Sharing Call Information and Barging

Unless a co-worker who shares your line has the Privacy feature enabled, you can see information on your phone screen about calls that your co-worker places and receives on the shared line. This information might include caller ID and call duration. Conversely, when you are using a shared line, information about your call is displayed on the co-worker’s phone screen.

When call information is visible in this way, you and co-workers can add yourselves to calls on the shared line using either the Barge or cBarge feature. Adding yourself to a call on a shared line is called barging. For more information about barging, see the “Adding Yourself to a Shared-Line Call” section on page 29.

Privacy

If you do not want co-workers who share your line to see information about your calls, enable the Privacy feature. Doing so also prevents co-workers from barging your calls. See the “Preventing Others from Viewing or Barging a Shared-Line Call” section on page 30.

Maximum Supported Calls on a Shared Line

The maximum number of calls that a shared line supports can vary by phone. Thus, at times you might not be able to make a new call on the shared line even if your co-worker can. For example, your phone supports a maximum of four calls on a shared line and your co-worker’s phone supports five calls on the same line. If there are four calls on the line, the NewCall softkey is unavailable to you but available to your co-worker.

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