boz4: Interview with Ex-GTE lineman...
q: So, you were a lineman for GTE right?
a: Yea, I worked as a lineman in Texas for gte for about 4 years.
q: That was a while back though right?
a: Well that would have been in the 80's.
q: Truly a bad time for everyone, anyway.. So had ESS been implemented yet when you started as a lineman?
a: Kindave, they had us going all over Texas replacing the electromechanical switching with digital switching stations, and they had us save all the Electromechanical switching so they could install it at other sites.
q: Really? Sounds like GTE spared no expense for it's valued customers.
a: Well, it was just getting started really.
q: So, did you ever work on payphones?
a: Yea. Quite a few.
q: How were the phones protected from fraud before ACTS became widely used?
a: They had a relay that would click over whenever you dropped a quarter in and that would turn on the rotary dialer.
q: Hmm... that sounds pretty exploitable.
a: We used to just tap the hook to dial and never had to pay a single qaurter, it was kindave hard to get the timing right and by the seventh number you started to get a little shaky but we used to do it all the time. There isnt any way to duplicate those tones, it's not possible.
q: Really? That's funny because I have a Micro Cassette recorder right here that duplicates them just fine..
<< rattled off a few quarter tones much to mr lineman's surprise >>
a: Well those aren't really clear enough though are they?
q: Sure they are, you know what else? You can run down to radio shack right now and buy a $25 dialer and order a 6.5 mhz crystal for it and generate the tones yourself. I know it works because I used to live in St. Louis right next to 7-11 and I was broke all the time so I built a dialer and snagged a GANG of free calls. Have you ever heard the Computerized Operator come on the line and tell you that you have $27.50 credit? It's very possible beleive me.
a: Well, um.. That's pretty neat. We never tried anything like that.
q: So getting back to the Digital Switching you were installing, how error proof were these switches?
a: The switches were run by a single processing unit and were constantly testing the loops. From any given point in Texas to any other point that was using digital equipment it could pinpoint the error down to actual card that was causing the trouble. All the techs had to do was go down there and pull out the failing card and install a new one.
q: That's amazing. So how many lines could a single Digital switching station handle?
a: I'm not sure on the exact number but we filled entire buildings with phone lines, wiring everywhere and the switch never missed a step.
q: Have you ever heard of people generating a 2600hz tone on a phone line to grab a trunk and then generating operator tones to make calls?
a: No, in fact I really dont know if it could be done. Well, I gotta get home but good luck.
q: thanks for all your time..
<< I dont think I scared him off but you really never know. its funny how people flip out the minute you start telling them something they think they shouldn't know. >>
