Phone Systems Tutorial part II by The Jolly Roger


Part II will deal with the various types of operators, office

heirarchy, & switching equipment.

 

Operators

~~~~~~~~~

 

There are many types of operators in the network and the more

common ones will be discussed.

 

TSPS Operator:

 

The TSPS [(Traffic Service Position System) ass opposed to This

Shitty Phone Service] Operator is probably the bitch (or bastard,

for the female libertationists out there) that most of us are used

to having to deal with. Here are his/her responsibilities:

 

1) Obtaning billing information for calling card or third number

calls

 

2) Identifying called customer on person-to-person calls.

 

3) Obtaining acceptance of charges on collect calls.

 

4) Identifying calling numbers. This only happens when the calling

# is not automatically recorded by CAMA (Centralized Automatic

Message Accounting) & forwarded from the local office. This could

be caused by equipment failures (ANIF- Automatic Number

Identification Failure) or if the office is not equipped for CAMA

(ONI- Operator Number Identification).

 

<I once has an equipment failure happen to me & the TSPS operator

came on and said, "What # are you calling FROM?" Out of curiosity,

I gave her the number to my CO, she thanked me & then I was

connected to a conversation that appeared to be between a frameman

& his wife. Then it started ringing the party I wanted to

originally call & everyone phreaked out (excuse the pun). I

immediately dropped this dual line conference!

 

You should not mess with the TSPS operator since she KNOWS which

number that you are calling from. Your number will show up on a

10-digit LED read-out (ANI board). She also knows whether or not

you are at a fortress phone & she can trace calls quite readily!

Out of all of the operators, she is one of the MOST DANGEROUS.

 

INWARD operator:

 

This operator assists your local TSPS ("0") operatorin connecting

calls. She will never question a call as long as the call is

withing HER SERVICE AREA. She can only be reached via other

operators or by a blue box. From a blue box, you would dial

KP+NPA+121+ST for the INWARD operator that will help you connect

any calls within that NPA only. (Blue Boxing will be discussed in

a future file).

 

DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE Operator:

 

This is the operator that you are connected to when you dial: 411

or NPA-555-1212. She does not readily know where you are calling

from. She does not have access to unlisted numbers, but she DOES

know if an unlisted # exists for a certain listing.

 

There is also a directory assistance operator for deaf people who

use teletypewriters. If your modem can transfer BAUDOT [(45.5

baud). One modem that I know of that will do this is the Apple Cat

acoustic or the Atari 830 acoustic modem. Yea I know they are hard

to find... but if you wanna do this.. look around!) then you can

call him/her up and have an interesting conversation. The # is:

800-855-1155. They use the standard Telex abbreviations such as GA

for go ahead. they tend to be nicer and will talk longer than your

regular operators. Also, they are more vulnerable into being

talked out of information through the process of "social

engineering" as Chesire Catalyst would put it.

 

<Unfortunately, they do not have access to much. I once

bullshitted with one of these operators a while back and I found

out that there are 2 such DA offices that handle TTY. One is in

Philadelphia and the other is in California. They have approx. 7

operators each. most of the TTY operators think that their job is

boring (based on an official "BIOC poll"). They also feel that

they are under-paid. They actually call up a regular DA # to

process your request (sorry, no fancy computers!)

 

Other operators have access to their own DA by dialing

KP+NPA+131+ST (MF).

 

CN/A operators:

 

CN/A Operators are operators that do exactly the opposite of what

directory assistance operators are for. In my experience, these

operators know more than the DA op's do & they are more

susceptable to "social engeneering." It is possible to bullshit a

CN/A operator for the NON-PUB DA # (ie, you give them the name &

they give you the unlisted number. See the article on unlisted

numbers in this cookbook for more info about them.). This is due

to the fact that they assume that you are a fellow company

employee. Unfortunately, the AT&T breakup has resulted in the

break-up of a few NON-PUB DA #'s and policy changes in CN/A

 

INTERCEPT Operator:

 

The intercept operator is the one that you are connected to when

there are notenough recordings available to tell you that the #

has been disconnected or changed. She usually says, "What # you

callin'?" with a foreign accent. This is the lowest operator

lifeform. Even though they don't know where you are calling from,

it is a waste or your time to try to verbally abuse them since

they usually understand very little English anyway.

 

Incidentally, a few area DO have intelligent INTERCEPT Operators.

 

OTHER Operators:

 

And then there are the: MObile, Ship-to-Shore, Conference, Marine

Verify, "Leave Word and Call Back," Rout & Rate

(KP+800+141+1212+ST), & other special operators who have one

purpose or another in the network.

 

Problems with an Operator> Ask to speak to their supervisor... or

better yet the Group Chief (who is the highest ranking official in

any office) who is the equivalent of the Madame ina whorehouse.

 

By the way, some CO's that willallow you to dial a 0 or 1 as the

4th digit, will also allow you to call special operators & other

fun Tel. Co. #'s without a blue box. This is ver rare, though! For

example,212-121-1111 will get you a NY Inward Operator.

 

Office Hierarchy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Every switching office in North America (the NPA system), is

assigned an office name and class. There are five classes of

offices numbered 1 through 5. Your CO is most likely a class 5 or

end office. All long-distance (Toll) calls are switched by a toll

office which can be a class 4, 3, 2, or 1 office. There is also a

class 4X office callen an intermediate point. The 4X office is a

digital one that can have an unattended exchange attached to it

(known as a Remote Switching Unit (RSU)).

 

The following chart will list the Office #, name, & how many of

those office exist (to the best of my knowledge) in North America:

 

Class Name Abb # Existing

----- ----------------------- --- -----------------

> 1 Regional Center RC 12

> 2 Sectional Center SC 67

> 3 Primary Center PC 230

> 4 Toll Center TC 1,300

> 4P Toll Point TP n/a

> 4X Intermediate Point IP n/a

> 5 End Office EO 19,000

> 6 RSU RSU n/a

 

When connecting a call from one party to another, the switching

equipment usually tries to find the shortest route between the

class 5 end office of the caller & the class 5 end officeof the

called party. If no inter-office trunks exist between the two

parties, it will then move upward to the next highest office for

servicing calls (Class 4). If the Class 4 office cannot handle the

call by sending it to another Class 4 or 5 office, it will then be

sent to the next highest office in the hierarchy (3). The

switching equipment first uses the high-usage interoffice trunk

groups, if they are busy then it goes to the fina; trunk groups on

the next highest level. If the call cannot be connected, you will

probably get a re-order [120 IPM (interruptions per minute) busy

signal] signal. At this time, the guys at Network Operations are

probably shitting in their pants and trying to avoid the dreaded

Network Dreadlock (as seen on TV!).

 

It is also interesting to note that 9 connections in tandem is

called ring-around-the-rosy and it has never occured in telephone

history. This would cause an endless loop connection [a neat way

to really screw up the network].

 

The 10 regional centers in the US & the 2 in Canada are all

interconnected. they form the foundation of the entire telephone

network. Since there are only 12 of them, they are listed below:

 

Class 1 Regional Office Location NPA

-------------------------------- ---

Dallas 4 ESS 214

Wayne, PA 215

Denver 4T 303

Regina No. 2SP1-4W (Canada) 306

St. Louis 4T 314

Rockdale, GA 404

Pittsburgh 4E 412

Montreal No. 1 4AETS (Canada) 504

 

That's it for now! More info to come Future update to the

Cookbook! Have fun! -Exodus-