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Phone Backspace Tone

 Flub the last digit in a long dialing sequence? No problem.
  (+14)(+14)
(+14) 		  [vote for,
against]

It never fails. When dialing an International phone number with 18 or 19 digits, I invariably push a wrong button towards the end of the sequence, forcing me to hang up and start over from the beginning. I want the phone company to retrofit their entire tone dialing infrastructure to support a "backspace" tone. When I screw up a long phone number with one incorrect digit, I can then push the backspace button on the new keypads and punch in the correct digit instead, without having to start over from the beginning.
—riromero, May 09 2005

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       If this hasn't been half-baked before (or even if it has), it is a brilliant idea.
—Basepair, May 09 2005
   

       I have seen cordless landline phones (indeed, my parents' is like this) which allow a user to enter a number before pushing the "Talk" button; if this is done, the unit will go off-hook, wait for dial tone, and outpulse the appropriate numbers. The phone in question does have a backspace key.
—supercat, May 09 2005
   

       Seems simpler just to make all dialing from temporary phone memory, just like cell phones.   

       Baked in cell phones, bun for suggesting it go into landlines.   

       EDIT: I'd give you an extra bun if I could for your "Change the world for a hard solution to a simple problem" mentality.
—shapu, May 09 2005
   

       [riromero], don't forget phone cards, where you dial eleven digits for the number, twelve digits for the PIN, and ten more for the destination number. With my phone card, an error in the sequence could easily require having to re-type all thirthy three digits!! [+]!   

       But . . . what happens if you enter the last number incorrectly and then it starts ringing?
—contracts, May 09 2005
   

       By the way, this same concept appears under a halfbakery idea entitled "!" [which dates from a time that Halfbakery's main page grouped ideas by initial character]. What's needed, though, is a way to apply it not only to the number you're dialing, but also to the last thing you said.
—supercat, May 09 2005
   

       Well there are 4 extra tones in the DTMF spectrum that are not on most phones (A,B,C and D) but are used in some military applications. Perhaps the B could be installed on the phone as the backspace key.
—Jscotty, Sep 03 2005
   

       .... it's a relatively easy thing to implement on a VoIP system because the number is not sent for processing until you actually finish entering it or hit # key for example.
—ixnaum, Sep 03 2005
   


 

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