In telephony

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

, a call may be placed on hold, in which case the connection is not terminated but no verbal communication is possible until the call is removed from hold by the same or another extension on the key telephone system

Key telephone system

A business telephone system is any of a range of a multiline telephone systems typically used in business environments, encompassing systems ranging from small key systems to large scale private branch....

. Music on hold

Music on hold

Music on hold is the business practice of playing recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold...

 or On Hold Messaging may be played for the caller while the call is on hold, especially if the call has been placed to a customer service

Customer service

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...

center. Alternatives to placing a caller on hold include virtual hold or virtual queuing solutions that allow scheduled or queue-based callbacks to be made to the caller.