Loop start is a a signaling technique in which a party gets a dial tone by closing (shorting) a DC current loop. In a loop start signaling system, the electrical loop between your telephone and your central office (CO) is normally open. When you pick up the telephone handset, it causes a circuit to be …
Phone prefixes are the codes that tell the phone companies which state, city, or county a person is calling from. As more people move to an area the phone prefixes change and additional ones are added. Depending on the state, there may only be a few prefixes. Prefixes help to differentiate between each person's phone …
To understand what an unlocked cell phone is, it is important to first understand what a locked cell phone is. A locked cell phone is one that can only be used with one cellular service provider. In contrast, an unlocked cell phone can be used with any cellular service provider. When a cell phone is …
When a coin is inserted into a payphone, the payphone emits a set of tones to ACTS (Automated Coin Toll System). Red boxes work by fooling ACTS into believing you have actually put money into the phone. The red box simply plays the ACTS tones into the telephone microphone. ACTS hears those tones, and allows …
Cordless phones, also known as cordless telephones or portable telephones, are a smarter replacement for the regular telephones. Cordless phones make use of wireless radio waves to connect to their base station equipments, unlike the wired cord of a regular telephone. Because cordless handsets use radio linking with their base stations, they operate within specific …
A LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) is a geographical and administrative area that is the responsibility of an LEC (Local Exchange Carrier). It is an expression used in U.S. telecommunications law. LATA borders are outlined around markets, and not essentially along present state, province, or even area code borders. Several LATAs traverse over state …
War dialing, also called scanning, is dialing a large number of telephone numbers in the hope of finding anything interesting. Interesting items often include test tones, computers, Voice Mail Boxes (VMB's), Private Branch Exchanges (PBX's), and government offices. A common technique is to find one telephone number owned by a target and then to war …
Owning a Blackberry enables its owners to do much more than they could ever accomplish with a basic cell phone. However, one of the most popular features that have carried over from basic cell phone to the BlackBerry is the ability to add ring tones. In earlier models adding ring tones to your Blackberry was …
TTY/TDD stands for a group of telecommunication devices that make it easier for deaf and/or mute people to talk over telephone lines. TTY stands for telephone typewriter, teletypewriter or text phone. TDD stands for Telecommunications Device for the Deaf. Usually these devices are all categorized under TTY/TDD. Sometimes TTY means manual devices such as typewriters, …