Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Can This Be True? Message-ID: <5443@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Mar 90 15:14:39 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Piet van Oostrum Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Lines: 25 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 191, Message 3 of 10 `> I trust all of you readers can keep a secret: My 15 year old son told `> me that he and his friends can place calls from pay phones using a `> paper clip instead of coins. In addition they can place long-distance `> calls the same way instead of using calling cards. I did not believe `> the claim until I saw the kids in action. They use the paper clip to `> complete a circuit and it requires about five seconds. In the Netherlands, telephone billing is, as in most European countries ``click-based''. You can have a counter at home to see how many clicks you have used. The telephone company then sends a puls over your line for each click. This pulse is between one of the signal wires and ground. This pulse is also used for payphones, to deduct the money from your deposit (on older payphones the click would cause the phone to swallow one coin). Some people found out a few years ago that you could disable the counting by grounding the microphone (just opening the moutpiece). Apparently the phone company changed all pay phones when they found out. Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands. Telephone: +31-30-531806 Uucp: uunet!mcsun!ruuinf!piet Telefax: +31-30-513791 Internet: piet@cs.ruu.nl (*`Pete')