[oclug] [OT] Disintermediate the telephone company

[Brian Barber]

I remember back in the early 90s when Chez 106 was giving away 106 pairs of tickets to either the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd (I can't remember which), but they wouldn't announce the time when the giveaway would be until the phones were open.  They only announced what week it would be so that you would have to listen the Chez 106 for that week to find out when the giveaway was happening.   When they announced it, I tried calling in and at first I got the busy signal, then the busy circuit signal and finally it got to the point where it took almost 10 seconds just to get a dial tone.  I heard that they really got their hand slapped for that one.

So, Olaf, it's not an urban legend.  It actually happened here in Ottawa, and I'm sure elsewhere, as well.

BB

Olaf wrote:
"I don't believe that telephone systems are not designed to handle the
situation where every subscriber goes off-hook simultaneously.  In the
past, radio contests with big prizes tended to expose this[1]."

[1] I can't find any references on the web to this, does anyone remember
this happening?  Maybe I've fallen prey to urban legends

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