# Can I use Three-Way Calling to talk to more than three parties at the same time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648 "2003-07-11T04:39:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648/1 "2003-07-11T04:39:44Z")
**Can I use Three-Way Calling to talk to more than three parties at the same time?** Believe it or not, but after 3 e-mails to bellsouth, they still can’t answer this question definitivley. Its a yes or no question, for goodness sake. Nevermind Bellsouth, if you have used Three-Way calling to talk to more than three parties at a time, just tell me how it worked and how to do it. Thanks in advance Ficer67 ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648/2 "2003-07-11T05:04:38Z")
not directly. If you have a friend also with 3 way calling, they could hook in a fourth person and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648/3 "2003-07-11T05:05:40Z")
And by the way, you asked if you could talk to “more than three parties”. In fact, you can’t even talk to three parties. Only two. You’re the third. ---
**Author:** ![macabresoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e68b1a/32.png) [@macabresoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/macabresoul)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648/4 "2003-07-11T05:11:52Z")
I don’t think you can BUT If one of the people you are calling has 3-way, THEY can call a fourth party up and connect all 4 people together. I did this once and we got 6 people on the line. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648/5 "2003-07-11T05:20:47Z")
Thanks guys. You guys responded more accurately and faster than Bellsouth’s customer service department. (I hope I did not insult anyone with that remark…) Bellsouth needs to get on the ball with a few things. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648/6 "2003-07-11T06:01:40Z")
My experience with this is that voice quality on the line deteriorates with each additional party added. By the time you get to 6 or 7 people, it’s really hard to understand the conversation. Especially if more than one person starts talking at once. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-three-way-calling-to-talk-to-more-than-three-parties-at-the-same-time/187648/7 "2003-07-11T10:22:25Z")
I’ve done it with about 8 people for kicks. As the others have noted, you need one of the parties involved to be able to further connect you, and so on, indefinitely. Ofcourse, the more there are the greater the chaos. However, my previous cell phone could support 6 people in a conference call directly. So more than 3 people in a call without the need for additional people to have conferencing facilities is possible, although your bell south line will not support this. Additionally, if you have a two-line phone, you can use the instrument’s conference button to conference the callers between the two lines. So, suppose you have 2 bell south lines coming into the 2-line phone with conference button. You can call 2 people on line 1 using bell south’s conference facility. You can call 2 people on line 2 using bell south’s conference facility. Then you can press the instrument’s conference button and the 5 of you can talk away.