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In the UK bitd (~1980) the test number was 174. It just rang you back when you hung up. There was no message. The exchanges weren't that sophisticated.

What country was this in? I distinctly remember dialing my own number resulting in nothing but a busy signal.

On mine, it was 981 followed by the last 4 digits of my phone number that would result in a "callback," and a constant tone would play when you answered.

I’ve also (a decade ago) called my own number (a cell line) and it gave me my voice mail as if I had just “speed dialed” “1”