The History of British Phreaking
Filed Under (All, Hacking, computer, story) by Ph4][)HL1 R4Ph1Q1 on 05-07-2008
Tagged Under : British Post Office, Cambridge University, Different Numbers, Fifties, Flashing, Local Exchange, Local Networks, Mf Tones, Office Engineers, Pairs, Phreaking, Phreaks, Pulses, Seventies, Signalling System, St Pauls, Sunday Times, Systems Technology, Telephony, Titan Computer
Note: The British post office, is the US Equivalent of Ma Bell.
In Britain, phreaking goes back to the early fifties, when the technique of ‘toll a drop back’ was discovered. Toll a was an exchange near St. Pauls which routed calls between London and nearby non-London exchanges. The trick was to dial an unallocate number, and then depress the receiver-rest for 1/2 second. This flashing initiated the ‘clear forward’ signal, leaving the caller with an open line into the toll exchange. The could then dial 018, which forwarded him to the trunk exchange at that time, the first long distance exchange in Britain and follow it with the code for the distant exchange to which he would be connected at no extra charge. Read the rest of this entry »
