Really STOOPID Cloned Line Question

[frankd1]

This question is strictly out of idle curiosity, because even if it works, it's more hassle than it's worth.

Anyway, I don't currently have a 2-line phone, so I can't test this myself. But 2-line phones I owned in the past often allowed the bridging of the two lines within the phone itself, so you could have three-way calling without using any telcom switch features.

My question is: if you theoretically take such a 2-line phone as above, make separate 3-way calls on each of the cloned lines (using the 3-way call feature), then bridge the two lines using the phone's bridge, you could end up with a 5-way call. Would this actually work with VOIPo's cloned lines?

Again, this is idle noggin scratching. With all the effort it takes to do the above, it would be much easier to use one of the free teleconferencing services that are advertised everywhere. Since I currently don't have a 2-line phone and don't use my cloned line at the moment, I've just wondered what real-life scenarios (besides being able to make simultaneous outbound calls) would be available once I start using my cloned line.

[VOIPoTim]

Really it should work virtually the same as having 2 real separate lines. The only difference is it has 1 phone number for both lines.

So in your example, it should work fine if the phone supports them since it's not involving calling incoming.

[frankd1]

Really it should work virtually the same as having 2 real separate lines. The only difference is it has 1 phone number for both lines.

So in your example, it should work fine if the phone supports them since it's not involving calling incoming.

Cool... thanks for the prompt reply Tim!

In another thread (can't remember if it was here or on DSLR, and I have no memory at all if you even participated in the thread) I was surprised to hear that using the 3-way call feature actually used more b/w. I always pictured the feature as bridging the call centrally (datacenter, CO, etc) and from the ATA's point POV, it's just handling a single call that happens to have multiple parties online). So, if this other thread was accurate, then my theoretical 5-way call would use 5 times the bw of a standard 1 to 1 call?

[VOIPoTim]

Cool... thanks for the prompt reply Tim!

In another thread (can't remember if it was here or on DSLR, and I have no memory at all if you even participated in the thread) I was surprised to hear that using the 3-way call feature actually used more b/w. I always pictured the feature as bridging the call centrally (datacenter, CO, etc) and from the ATA's point POV, it's just handling a single call that happens to have multiple parties online). So, if this other thread was accurate, then my theoretical 5-way call would use 5 times the bw of a standard 1 to 1 call?

Yeah it's a little confusing.

The audio doesn't actually go through us normally. 99% of the time it's a direct stream from your ATA to the remote phone gateway handing off the call to the regular phone network of the person you're talking to.

So 5 calls basically means 5 streams from you to their appropriate gateways for the people you're talking to.