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How to make a three-way phone call

(Or four-way, five-way, multi-way etc if you like)

This works on British Telecom lines. Other phone companies may have systems which are different/equivalent. It's worth finding out about.

The cost of this is the cost of both the calls plus 50p. (Don't you think that puts people off, charging the extra 50p, when the phone company is already being paid for both of the calls?)

Also, generally you need to have a phone with a RECALL button on it. It also has to be a phone that goes beep when you press the buttons (a "tone-dial" phone). Most tone-dial phones have a RECALL button.

Anyway, here's the method...

• Dial the first phone number
• Wait for the person to answer
• Explain what you are doing and ask them to hold
• Press RECALL
• (wait for dial tone)
• Dial the second phone number
• Wait for the other person to answer
• Mention you have someone else on the line
• Press RECALL
• (wait for dial tone)
• Press 3

And then during the call you can talk to both people at the same time, or to one or the other only, using these controls:

• RECALL (wait for dial tone) 2 - switches between one person and the other.
• RECALL (wait) 3 - switches back to three-way communication.

To end the call, you can selectively end one or other link by these controls:

• RECALL 5 - ends the communication with the first person
• RECALL 7 - ends the communication with the second person
• Or HANGING UP - ends the communication with both

Also, it's worth noting that while making such a 3-way phone call, either of the other two people can perform a similar procedure and start other three-way calls. In this way it is possible to set up a multi-way call of many participants.

Don't forget that phone calls are expensive, and if you are nattering to a lot of people at the same time on the phone it could cost more than you might guess. Still, it's worth knowing this technique is possible, as there may be circumstances in which it's a good idea.

There is also such a thing as a CONFERENCE CALL which has to be arranged via the Operator. This is more expensive, but can be more practical if more than six people are being called at the same time.

Incidentally, I am not British Telecom, and I am not getting paid for putting this information up here. It's just me being helpful. If you'd like me to get paid, it's worth bookmarking my site and looking around the pages where I have a lot of interesting stuff for sale which I get paid commission on!

I'd like to have an affiliate program with Pow Wow, a company who had an alternative way of doing 3-way calls. They had an affiliate program a while ago, but I don't know what's happened to it since.

If you'd like to buy a phone, one of the places worth having a look is BT Phone Shop where they've got various types of modern telephones for sale.

If the phone you have at present has no recall button, you can still do "recall" by a cunning method described at the page how to do a RECALL without having a Recall button

This page is one of many helpful pages at Zyra's website. If you find this helpful, it'd be a good idea to bookmark Zyra.ORG.UK so you know where to find it again.