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Help Engaged, or what?

D

Dumb_user

Newbie
Can someone tell me what it means when I dial someone's number from my Android phone (a Samsung Galaxy A3, in case it's relevant) and the call disconnects almost immediately, after a short, descending 'biddly-boop' tone? There is no 'ringing at the other end' tone or 'engaged' tone to indicate what's happening.

I've Googled this, but the only hits I'm getting are to do with the 'engaged' behaviour of Android phones themselves, not what's happening to calls made from an Android phone. I've noticed it with two land line numbers which I've dialled recently, and in the case of the latest one it's mildly urgent that I contact the person.

Thanks in advance for any help/feedback.
 
Are you in the same general area when this problem is occurring? How good a cellular signal is your phone getting when there's no discernible dial tone? Could it be you're just out of range of a local cell tower?

If you can get a good mobile data connection that would indicate there isn't a cellular signal problem, but you try re-seating your SIM card just in case. Have you logged into your account with your carrier or contacted them? This could be an issue with your carrier service, not necessarily anything to do with your phone itself.
 
Thanks for the responses, folks. Signal strength is good, and my bill is paid - this is just happening occasionally to a couple of numbers which (coincidentally, for all I know) are landlines.

It's more of a gripe on my part, to be honest - it were all landlines 'round here when I were a lad, and if you called someone who was already on the phone to someone else, you got a steady 'boop - boop - boop' to let you know the line was engaged. This business of just disconnecting the call strikes me as a bit unhelpful, bordering on rude. I mean, you still hear a ring tone while you're waiting for the other person to pick up, so why not an engaged tone to indicate that you should try later? Probably just me on that one...
 
London SW16 (Streatham), and Plusnet. One of the landlines it's happened with is less than a mle away, the other one is in Cornwall
 
UK landline numbers. Hmm, interesting. And this is normal cellular voice calling rather than WiFi calling or via some app (Skype etc)? It's consistent when calling these numbers, rather than intermittent?

I was reluctant to speculate, but is there any reason why these numbers might automatically be rejecting your call? This could include if you withold your caller ID (which some people might do because they are having to use a personal phone for work at the moment) and the recipient is banning number witheld calls.

I've been trying to think where I've met a descending "biddly boop" tone, but realise that it's a shutdown tone from an audio peripheral on my computer rather than anything to do with my phone.
 
Yep, normal cellular calls after accessing numbers from my phone's contacts list. The one in Cornwall (my mother) is almost certainly because it's engaged, and I suppose the other one is, too - it's not that I can never get through to them, it's just not obvious what's happened, hence my original query as to whether the almost immediate disconnection after dialling signifies an engaged line.

Astonishingly, I still scrape a living working in IT, but I seem to spend half my time looking at the screen of my phone like a dog that's been shown a card trick. Just the other day, I called some company where a recording offered me numbered menu options. I took my phone from my ear to enter the relevant digit and found the screen was blank (I think I set this option ages ago because I'd found I was accidentally hanging up during calls by touching the disconnect button with my ear lobe!). For reasons I can't fathom, I then had to (i) press the button on the side to reactivate the screen, (ii) swipe, (iii) enter my PIN, (iv) open the apps folder, (v) open the actual 'phone' app, and finally (vi) access the phone's keypad. I started touching the option digit (which the screen registered), but by this time the recording had lost patience with me and just hung up.

Thanks for the ongoing interest - it is appreciated. It's probably just me and my running battle with the 21st century - nothing works the way I expect it to (or think it should). If you're remotely interested, here's a thread I posted a few weeks ago about not understanding why I couldn't access Google Maps while out and about. I posted it in the Android Development forum, but nobody responded. o_O

Oh, and Happy Easter, folks! :D
 
Oh, and Hadron - no, I'm not withholding my number (although, as you might have gathered by now, I might be doing so without realising it! I chose my user name after some consideration ;))
 
Dumb_user said:
It's probably just me and my running battle with the 21st century - nothing works the way I expect it to (or think it should).
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You're not alone! :) Oh, sure, I love technology and embrace it, but there are certain 'old' things I miss. I often wonder why such-and-such can't/won't do what I think it should.

By the way...I still have a landline! :o It's my go-to phone, the only number I ever give out. Only my closest friends and relatives even know my cell number--but they know never to call it unless they've been unable, for awhile, to reach me otherwise. I simply don't use it. [Well, as a phone--I'm typing this on it, over Wi-Fi.]
If you're remotely interested, here's a thread I posted a few weeks ago about not understanding why I couldn't access Google Maps while out and about. I posted it in the Android Development forum, but nobody responded. o_O
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That board is meant for app developers. I'm sorry no one bothered to let you know.
 
To MoodyBlues: "You're not alone!". Thanks - I feel the empathy;). Also, thanks for pointing out that the Android Development forum is for app developers. Another classic example of my literal-mindedness, as in "Android Development forum = forum for those who develop the Android OS").

To dontpanicbobb: Yes, engaged is UK English for busy, where phones are concerned (for my generation, at least). I think there's a strong possibility that you still get the engaged/busy tone from a landline when calling it from another landline.

I can't believe anyone's interested in my whinging any more, but I had another minor classic at the weekend. I called a friend's mobile from my mobile, and when they didn't pick up I started leaving a message. While doing so, I heard the beeps which indicated an incoming call, and on checking the display realised that they were now calling me. I swiped the green button to accept the call but instead of my phone simply connecting us, the screen displayed a white square with three lines of black text (the top one was in bold text and definitely said 'accept call', but I can't remember what the other two said): -

Answer call
First alternative to answering call
Do not accept call and do something else

This baffled me completely (which, I grant you, isn't difficult) - I now understand that the lines of text were options for me to select from, but because there were no buttons to interact with (unlike the step which immediately preceded it) I perceived it as information (with the emboldened first line being the 'heading'!), not a prompt requiring a response; I just don't get why I had to further confirm my wish to accept the call (by touching my finger to a line of text) having already swiped the green button! What the hell are they thinking?!
 
Dumb_user said:
Can someone tell me what it means when I dial someone's number from my Android phone (a Samsung Galaxy A3, in case it's relevant) and the call disconnects almost immediately, after a short, descending 'biddly-boop' tone? There is no 'ringing at the other end' tone or 'engaged' tone to indicate what's happening.
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Hi @Dumb_user,

As a matter of interest I have come across what sounds like the tone sequence you have experienced. Some time ago I had a number of PAYG SIMs in mobile phones that I had bought as upgrades but decided to keep all devices working. At one time I had six in total, ranging from a Motorola V3i, HTC TyTn l, 2 X HTC TyTn ll, and an Orange Lisbon, the latter was a 'freebie' :).

In the end I let them lapse and in theory they would be 'recycled'. However, there are at least two which have not been recycled and which, if the number is dialled, results in a 'biddly-boop'.

The numbers are 07855979571 and 07813074768.

The reason I am aware of this is that when I spoke to Orange to obtain one of the SIMs the advisor offered me 07813074768 which contains my birth date and in fact I intended to keep but failed to use it within the six month window. I tried to get EE to reinstate it but they refused.

It would be interesting to see, if you ring either one, whether the response is indeed the same.

:)
 
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Biddy - boop is familiar to me as well but can't pinpoint it.

I haven't read all the posts here fully.

I'm fairly sure it happens when you get a missed automated scam call without realising, and call back; though that wouldn't apply here. I don't think it's when the receiver has (accidentally) blocked your number (again not relevant).

It will come to me.

BTW OP : I'm confined to walks around Tooting Bec Common or Wandsworth Common, so if you are huffing and puffing towards me in lycra, like a hundred others, please give me a wide berth. (Joke, but it is annoying) :p :)
 
Dumb_user said:
Can someone tell me what it means when I dial someone's number from my Android phone (a Samsung Galaxy A3, in case it's relevant) and the call disconnects almost immediately, after a short, descending 'biddly-boop' tone? There is no 'ringing at the other end' tone or 'engaged' tone to indicate what's happening.

I've Googled this, but the only hits I'm getting are to do with the 'engaged' behaviour of Android phones themselves, not what's happening to calls made from an Android phone. I've noticed it with two land line numbers which I've dialled recently, and in the case of the latest one it's mildly urgent that I contact the person.

Thanks in advance for any help/feedback.
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Not sure if you've resolved this yet, are the numbers that you're trying to call Voip? I ask because there are two numbers that I just can't connect with, ever, and both are Voip. Interestingly, I can connect to those numbers with my office phone, which is itself Voip. I've never figured that one out. Also, the second thing you had was a dialog from the phone after trying to answer your incoming call, but that sounds like the normal thing when you're already on one call, you'd said you were leaving a voicemail.
 
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Trom said:
are the numbers that you're trying to call Voip?
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Sorry, I thought I'd made it clear that they were landlines.

Trom said:
Also, the second thing you had was a dialog from the phone after trying to answer your incoming call, but that sounds like the normal thing when you're already on one call, you'd said you were leaving a voicemail.
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I think you've missed my point. It may be normal, but to me it's just unnecessary and confusing: I've already swiped the green button to confirm that I want to accept the incoming call, so why am I then presented with the dialog I described instead of being connected? As I said, the lack of buttons at that point made it look to me like information, not a prompt requiring an additional response.
 
Yes! That's the one! That's exactly the sound I get when calling the two landlines, and I got it when I called both the numbers you specified.

There's also a 'rising' biddly-boop a couple of seconds before the 'falling' one with both your numbers. It's been a few weeks since I had the issue with the landlines (which, the more time passes, the more I'm convinced it's a busy/engaged issue), so I can't remember if that happened with them.
 
Dumb_user said:
Yes! That's the one! That's exactly the sound I get when calling the two landlines, and I got it when I called both the numbers you specified.

There's also a 'rising' biddly-boop a couple of seconds before the 'falling' one with both your numbers. It's been a few weeks since I had the issue with the landlines (which, the more time passes, the more I'm convinced it's a busy/engaged issue), so I can't remember if that happened with them.
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I thought it matched your description, and although both my numbers were/are mobile numbers, I'm assuming the same will apply to landline numbers that are awaiting 'recycling'. From what I have read on the web, numbers can be recycled within 90 days but I think that would apply to landlines rather than mobile numbers, particularly in telephone areas that are heavily populated.

I keep checking my 'birth date' number with a view to asking EE if I can have it back, I still have a PAYG SIM with them.

Its somewhat puzzling with your two numbers, particularly the one belonging to your mother, you would obviously know if she had changed numbers for some reason making the first number recyclable.
 
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Dumb_user said:
Sorry, I thought I'd made it clear that they were landlines.

I think you've missed my point. It may be normal, but to me it's just unnecessary and confusing: I've already swiped the green button to confirm that I want to accept the incoming call, so why am I then presented with the dialog I described instead of being connected? As I said, the lack of buttons at that point made it look to me like information, not a prompt requiring an additional response.
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Most people at my company will tell you that their desk phone is a land-line, so things like that are clear as mud.
 
I should add that despite working for British Telecom for 35 years, starting in 1964 as a Youth-in-Training, which was, I think, a unique name for what otherwise was known as an apprentice, I never came across the recycling of numbers. Mind you it no doubt only became unavoidable as the years went by.

In any case my last 30 years or so were spent on locating and clearing faults on the main network, in particular datacomms networks, which took me away from the telephone side of things.
 
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tommo47 said:
You are quite right @Dumb_user, company desk phones will almost certainly be associated with a PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange), which will have one or more landline connections to the local telephone exchange.

:)
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Yes, I probably have some outdated ideas about telephones, but for me they still fall into two categories: landline or mobile (or celllular, as most of my transatlantic friends call them). Not sure where the confusion arises regarding people at Trom's company referring to their desk phones as landlines, but I suppose life would be a bit dull if we all saw the world the same way.

Interesting that you once worked for BT, although I'd be amazed if it was called that back when you started - wasn't it still part of the GPO? I could well be wrong, being 3 years old in 1964! In the '80s I used to play in a band whose vehicle was one of those yellow, ex-BT, Dodge Commer box vans. Happy days...
 
Again you are quite right, when I left school at 17 it was to gain employment with the GPO Telephones which was a Government Department so I have been a Civil Servant until it became 'Post Office Telecommunications' in1969 and was part of the 'Post Office Corporation' and no longer a Government Department and after further changes became the current short and perhaps not so sweet BT.

I had a very enjoyable 35 years with them, but things changed in a big way when it went public and shareholders appeared on the scene.

I was glad to take advantage of the 'downsizing' programme in the late '90s and took early retirement in 1998.

The yellow vans took the place of the green GPO vans from 1969 onwards and which then became grey some years later.

Happy days indeed.

:)

PS. Engaged/Busy has always been a continuous beep-beep-beep single frequency interrupted tone, so I think the biddly-boop is particular to other number status conditions including the two examples of my no 'longer in use/recycleable' numbers. I just might give BT a call and see if they can shed any light on it.
 
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