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Concerning S.I.T. (Special Information Tones),
disconnected telephone lines,
predictive dialers and
the Telezapper:

Predictive Dialers are used by telemarketing firms to gain more 'dialing efficiency'.

About 75% of junk calls are made with a predictive dialer (PD).
One thing a PD does, is monitor what happens when the phone is answered.

PD senses	(note)	= Result
Busy	-	= it hangs up
Disconnect (S.I.T.) tones	regardless of source	= it may hang up & may delete the # from call list
No answer	-	= it hangs up
Answering machine	message = more than 'Hello'	= it hangs up
Live answer	with no t'mktr available	= it hangs up
Live answer	with a t'mktr available	= it transfers the call to a t'mktr - there will be a wait after transfer

Note: It takes a while (milli-seconds to 5 seconds) for a PD to attempt to determine if a call is answered live or by an answering machine. This time period, when experienced by the called party, commonly results in the called party hanging up before the call is switched to a telemarketer.

The Telezapper can emit a 'disconnect' tone when your phone line goes off-hook. The tone it transmits is either a single 'ultra-modulated' tone or an actual set of 3 'Special Information Tones' (S.I.T.) common to the telecommunications industry: depending on the setting you seletct. It works... now... in some situations.

But many telemarketers (due to the number of folks with Telezappers) are deactivating the feature on their PDs which deletes numbers when a PD encounters S.I.T. tones (ultramodulated or otherwise) emitted by the TeleZapper. As that happens, that $40 Telezapper will become a chew toy for your dog.

Indeed, some PD manufactures have already found a way around the Telezapper / S.I.T. tones.
See: http://www.mosaixusergroup.com/avya_SSB116.htm (archived page)

You can get a set of all three Special Information Tones from Private Citizen FOR FREE. Just record the tones at the beginning of your answering machine message and put your greeting right after it. The tones are available by clicking here .

If you don't like the idea of your friends calling, and thinking your phone is disconnected, before you or your answering machine picks up the call, you can always join Private Citizen . We will notify over 1,000 telemarketing firms that, if they call you, they will owe you $500. That will keep the vast majority of them off your back.

Private Citizen, Inc.
http://privatecitizen.com