Call Waiting doesn't beep but instead interrupts call in progress - fix?

[jdubs86]

Using OBI200 with CallCentric.  Call Waiting with Caller ID is enabled.  Telephone is Caller ID capable and Caller ID works fine on original incoming calls.  But Call Waiting in action is much different.  Instead of hearing the usual "beep" while talking on a call-in-progress, the incoming Call Waiting call instead briefly interrupts the call in progress -- specifically I get a loud click in my ear (and the ear of the person I'm talking with!) along with a noticeable 1-2 second cut-out of our voices.  Feels almost like we're temporarily disconnected! 

I thought this Call Waiting with Caller ID feature was supposed to deliver a soft "beep" in my ear and the second caller's ID show up on my phone's screen, giving me the option of clicking over to receive it?  I'm grateful for suggestions on how to fix this!

[dlarson54]

I have the same problem with the 508 model.

[drgeoff]

Using OBI200 with CallCentric.  Call Waiting with Caller ID is enabled.  Telephone is Caller ID capable and Caller ID works fine on original incoming calls.  But Call Waiting in action is much different.  Instead of hearing the usual "beep" while talking on a call-in-progress, the incoming Call Waiting call instead briefly interrupts the call in progress -- specifically I get a loud click in my ear (and the ear of the person I'm talking with!) along with a noticeable 1-2 second cut-out of our voices.  Feels almost like we're temporarily disconnected!  

I thought this Call Waiting with Caller ID feature was supposed to deliver a soft "beep" in my ear and the second caller's ID show up on my phone's screen, giving me the option of clicking over to receive it?  I'm grateful for suggestions on how to fix this!

How can you expect it to do otherwise?  The only way an ordinary phone can receive Caller ID is by having tones (Bell 202 modem tones in N. America) sent to it.  Those can only come over the same wires that you are speaking over.  The conversation has to be interrupted for a brief period to convey the Caller ID.

From the Admin Guide:

CWCID signal is sent to the phone when it is in the off
hook state. It starts with a handshake between the OBi
device and the attached phone, by exchanging audible
short tones. OBi will proceed with the transmission of the
remaining Caller ID signal only if the handshake succeeds
(with a phone is capable of displaying CWCID). In that
case the phone mutes the handset earpiece until the
CWCID signal is complete. Some users however may still
find the audible handshake tones objectionable,
especially if their phones do not support CWCID. We
recommend to those users to set this option to No, if they
do not want CWCID feature, or do not have phones that
are capable of displaying CWCID.

Also note that a phone which supports Caller ID does not necessarily support Call Waiting with Caller ID.

[jdubs86]

Well, to explain, the expectation arises out of the fact that POTS handles it just fine.  Of course even there admittedly the "beep" tone does technically "blot out" audio in both directions very briefly to your point.  But it's extremely brief to the point of almost being unnoticeable. 

With the OBI200 at least, the interruption is more significant (no way to time it, but it "feels" like 1-2 seconds) and it's "instead of" a beep.  In other words, I'm getting no beep tone despite the settings showing that Call Waiting is enabled and with standard tone selected.  Instead it sounds almost like the call-in-progress is temporarily being disconnected.

You could very well be right about the phone hardware as root cause of not seeing the CID - after all it's an analog phone plugged into the OBI200.  However, on POTS the CWCID worked fine.  But at minimum I was expecting a usual beep tone and not the more intrusive interruption to the call in-progress I'm experiencing.     

[dlarson54]

I am wondering if in Expert Configuration the duration can be adjusted. I know the ring can.