In telephony, beep lines[a] were improvised conference calls hosted over busy signals, loop-around test tones, or certain automated informational service numbers, active in the United States from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s.[5][6][7][1][3] These lines allowed callers to communicate with up to dozens of other people simultaneously, the conversations often punctuated by the busy tone "beep" and accompanying intercept message. Such lines were a consequence of the electromechanical nature of switching equipment within the central offices of the public switched telephone network in widespread use at the time. Some journalists have perceived beep lines as an early form of social media.[8][9]
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