Hotline is not a truly native stand-alone feature for the Communication Manager; instead, it is a subset of the Abbreviated Dialing feature. When implemented. To the user it is functionally indistinguishable from CS 1000 hotline.
On the CS 1000, several variants on hotline were defined.
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For digital and UNIStim endpoints, a button was pressed that provided an “auto-dial” to a destination. This may allow options such as “conference/hotline”, but when an appearance was selected (or the user pressed the conference or transfer), the system automatically called the hotline destination.
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Analog stations with the basic analog handling called the programmed hotline target by going off-hook.
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One-way and two-way hotline existed:
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Hotline buttons combine the autodial function with at least the outgoing call capability of a line appearance. One-way hotline can only place outgoing calls from the line appearance key, while two-way allows calls to be received as well as originated from the key.
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One-way hotline used the key to call a specific destination. The user pressed the programmed hotline key, and the programmed destination (which can be either a number or a speed call list entry) is dialed.
The one-way hotline has no information for call-back; it is an un-callable extension. Therefore, if the CS 1000 endpoint had a prime directory number (an extension assigned to key 0), that was used for the calling party information for the hotline call. Otherwise, the call was anonymous.
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Two-way hotline combines the hotline key and a bi-directional line appearance of a specific DN. It extends the one-way hotline to allow incoming calls to the key, which requires an assigned extension.
As with the one-way hotline, pressing this button selects the line and dials the destination as a single operation. However, as the dialable number for the hotline key is available, the far end user will see the hotline key’s extension number and can uses it to call back to the near end hotline key. The two-way hotline service is supported on Device Adapter.
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A hotline destination may be a hotline list entry or a specific extension as the target.
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The Device Adapter provides the ability to automatically dial the hot line target using a line appearance and HTL feature mnemonic. This includes having the call automatically dial on the analog station going off hook.
