Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!bionet!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: cellar!martin@bellcore.bellcore.com (Martin Harriss (ACP)) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Tracing Obscene/Nuisance Calls in the UK Message-ID: <12253@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 17 Sep 90 21:33:40 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: "Martin Harriss (ACP" Organization: Bellcore Lines: 42 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 653, Message 7 of 9 In article <12193@accuvax.nwu.edu> julian@bongo.uucp (Julian Macassey) writes: >Now the technical stuff. Her local exchange (CO) which is a >TXE-4 (Reed relay job) now has itemised billing. So they obviously >have records of outgoing calls. I also recall a court case I sat in on >in Lambeth Magistrates court, this was in 1967. The prisoner was >accused of "Stealing electricity". His actual offence was calling the >emergency services - 999 (UK equiv of 911 that goes back to the >forties). But annoying the emergency services is on the cops home turf >and is more important to them than some poor soul being woken at one >in the morning to hear an anatomical inventory. Obviously if they >could trace calls then, they can trace calls now. In the old days, >special equipment had to be placed on lines in the CO to trace a call >and sometimes an engineer had to be present. But today with computers >and electronic switching, no one has to be around while the call is >going through. 999 (and for that matter 100, for the operator) is a special case - it's not like a normal call. When an operator answers, the circuit is held all the way back to the calling phone. Even if the call is coming from another exchange, special equipment will hold the call over the junction (operator calls often use a different set of circuits than normal calls). The only way to release the circuit is for the operator to pull the plug or throw the release key. This 'Manual Hold', as it is known, has been BT/PO/GPO's way of doing busness for many years. I suspect what was happening in the case cited here was that the accused was continually calling 999. Someone got fed up with it, and held the call while the engineering staff traced it back. Even if the calls were made in the middle of the night, the circuit could be held indefinitely, such as until the engineering staff comes to work the next day. Incidentally, ANI, and hence itemised billing is not native to TXE4's - it's an after-market add-on unit. Touch tone, though, is a standard option. Martin Harriss martin@cellar.bae.bellcore.com