As many people are fed up with their cell phone providers, a new trend has opened up for tracphones. A tracphone, or TracFone, is a prepaid phone that gives you the accessibility of a contract plan without the commitment. Tracphones have become much more popular in the past few months as more people are finally …
A smartphone is a mobile phone with a considerably greater amount of functionality than an ordinary mobile phone or a feature phone. Smartphones can be considered a blend between a mobile phone and a full featured mobile computer, similar to the PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) of the past, but even more capable. They typically include …
A TIMSI, or Temporary International Mobile Subscriber Identity, number is a random number that is created from a telecommunications subscriber’s IMSI number in order to provide additional security. While an IMSI is unique to each subscriber and is a permanent number that can be used to track a subscriber or interfere with his/her services, a …
CNA stands for Customer Name and Address. The CNA number is a phone number for telephone company personnel to call and get the name and address for a phone number. If a telephone lineman finds a phone line he does not recognize, he can use the ANAC Number to find its phone number and then …
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system is a widely deployed digital mobile telephony standard that is deployed throughout Europe and other locations around the globe. The GSM standard leverages a variant of TDMA (time division multiple access) and is the most deployed of the three competing legacy digital wireless technologies on the market …
The SCM (Station Class Mark) is a 4 bit number which holds three different pieces of information. Your cellular telephone transmits this information (and more) to the cell tower. Bit 1 of the SCM tells the cell tower whether your cellphone uses the older 666 channel cellular system, or the newer 832 channel cellular system. …
A CLEC, or Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, is a type of telecommunications provider that was formed after the breakup of AT&T. CLECs are usually smaller telecommunications providers that compete with ILECs, or Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers, which were already in place before AT&T’s separation. While CLECs generally provide the same services as ILECS for less, …
Phone phreaking is the act of gaining illegal access to resources of telecom networks for fun or malicious activity. Before computer hacking took over, phreaking was the dominant underground tech activity. Some phone phreakers just wanted to understand how telecom infrastructure worked. Others wanted to make free long distance phone calls. As voice and data …
When dealing with a wet phone, it is important to act quickly. Few phone companies offer a warranty on wet phones and have gone as far as to place a "wet strip" on the phone that changes colors when it has gotten wet. What this means is that the wet strip will allow the company …
This is the “right hand” of both the professional and the amateur lineman. Basically, it is a customized portable telephone which is designed to be hooked onto raw cable terminals in the field and used to monitor the line, talk, or dial out. The monitor function is usually the main difference between the “butt-in” test …