• codapine@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    I remember landlines in the UK actually operating like this in the nineties. If you hung up, the line would stay open until the caller ended the call. It doesn’t make any sense and I remember being surprised when it didn’t happen when the caller was on a mobile phone.

    Maybe our cable company’s exchanges were misconfigured? I’m pretty sure it doesn’t happen these days. You could never hang up on unsolicited sales calls for example.

    • cynar@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It happened with some analogue lines and particular phones. The line would stay active while a voltage was applied. Initially, the caller would provide it. It would then change to allow both to drop it. Some phones would keep the line high, hell or high water, basically jamming it open.