Telephone trouble: two rings and then a fast beep beep beep (busy signal)?

Question

I'm trying to place a call to my buddy's land line. It rings twice and then goes into a fast busy signal. Does anyone know what this means? It only happens when I call his number, not any other numbers.

Answer 1

There is trouble on your buddys phone line. What's going on is called tripping the ring. When a line rings and you pick up the receiver it places a short on the line which kills the ring from the centeral office. If there is already a hard short on the line the office equipment thinks the phone has been answered.

Answer 2

it is grounding out. there is a short somewhere