Hotline
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In telecommunication, a hotline (also called an automatic signaling service, ringdown, or off-hook service) is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. Perhaps the most famous example is the red telephone which linked the White House and the Kremlin during the Cold War.
A hotline was used during the cold war to speak directly from Washington to Moscow. True hotlines cannot be used to originate calls other than to preselected destinations. However, in common or colloquial usage, a "hotline" often refers to a call center reachable by dialing a standard telephone number, or sometimes the phone numbers themselves. This is especially the case with 24-hour, noncommercial numbers, such as police tip hotlines or suicide crisis hotlines, which are manned around the clock and thereby give the appearance of real hotlines. Increasingly, however, the term is found being applied to any customer service telephone number.
Hotlines are generally employed to allow for immediate assistance with a problem. For example, Governor Howard Dean created a hotline for legislators in Vermont to provide feedback on budget cuts. Commonly, a hotline refers to a mental health hotline such as hotlines for stress, child abuse, domestic abuse or other forms of self-harm or injurious conduct.
- Derived from Federal Standard 1037C.
[edit] Notable hotlines
- The White House/Kremlin hotline during the Cold War, known as the red telephone, which was established on June 20, 1963, in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- On June 20, 2004, both India and Pakistan agreed to extend a nuclear testing ban and to set up a hotline between their foreign secretaries aimed at preventing misunderstandings that might lead to nuclear war.
- Fictional hero Batman had a hotline connecting the mayor's office to his desk in the 1966 TV series featuring Adam West. This is known as the Batphone. It was a red phone that sat beneath a cake cover and would light up when rung.
- India and China announced a hotline for the foreign ministers of both countries while reiterating their commitment to strengthening ties and building "mutual political trust".
