Call waiting (or catch phone in Japan), in telephony, is a feature on some telephone networks. If a calling party places a call to a called party which is otherwise engaged, and the called party has the call waiting feature enabled, the called party is able to suspend the current telephone call and switch to the new incoming call (typically, this is done by pushing the flash button), and can then negotiate with the new or the current caller an appropriate time to ring back. Call waiting, then, alleviates the need to have more than one line for voice communications.
Read more about Call Waiting: Star Codes, Line Sharing, History
Famous quotes containing the words call and/or waiting:
“We know not what it is, dear, this sleep so deep and still;
The folded hands, the awful calm, the cheek so pale and chill;
The lids that will not lift again, though we may call and call;
The strange white solitude of peace that settles over all.”
—Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905)
“The past is always waiting to entangle and deflect us.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)