A conditional autodialer coupled to a
telephone line is adapted to selectively automatically dial a predetermined
telephone number, after a predetermined
delay period following the appearance of an on-hook to off-hook transition on the
telephone line. The autodialer includes an off-hook
detector, a touch tone
detector, a memory for storing the predetermined number, a
dialer and a controller (such as a
microprocessor) coupled to receive signals from the off-hook
detector and touch tone detector, to communicate with the memory and to provide command signals to the
dialer. In operation, the controller responds to an off-hook condition by starting the
delay period. If the
delay period successfully times out, the controller reads the predetermined number from memory and enables the
dialer to dial the number onto the
telephone line. However, if, during the delay period, the presence of a DTMF digit or an incoming call is sensed, dialing the predetermined number onto the line is prevented. Preferably, both the predetermined number and the length of the predetermined delay period are programmable from the telephone set. The conditional autodialer may be embodied in a stand-alone unit or integrated with an individual telephone set.