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:
“The little Strangs say the “good words,” as they call them, before going to bed, aloud and at their father’s knee, or rather in the pit of his stomach. One of them was lately heard to say “Forgive us our christmasses as we forgive them that christmas against us.””
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“Everyone waiting here was once in love.”
—Rita Dove (b. 1952)