Abstract: A telephone having a speaker, microphone, processor, control unit, inhibit unit, and audible indicator. When the telephone is used to communicate conventionally with another telephone, for example to enable respective users to speak to each other, electronic signals corresponding to the speech are transmitted to and received by the telephone at an input and output, respectively. The processor electronically processes the signals. Signals from incoming calls are relayed from the input to the speaker, and signals from outgoing calls are relayed from the microphone to the output. The control unit identifies the presence of a command signal with the incoming calls. If a user of another telephone wishes to call the telephone, the user dials the number of the telephone in the conventional way.