14 replies to this topic

[sniper606]

I installed the Phonal Tonal boxing app for my iphone today, it costs 99 cents from the app store. Went to an Alltell payphone, dialed the operator and told her I was blind and asked her to dial a number for me. She asked me how I wanted to pay and I told her I had quarters. So she tells me to insert the money and I beep 3 quarter tones. Thank you have a nice day and my call was connected. It fucking worked.

[rbcp]

It never stopped working for local call and in-state long distance. Some people have claimed they can still red box across the country, but I haven't managed to make that happen in nearly a decade now. I keep an mp3 of a quarter on my iPhone, just to show friends how it works when we happen to be near a compatible pay phone. I'd never heard of that app before. I just bought it and it's awesome.

[sniper606]

It never stopped working for local call and in-state long distance. Some people have claimed they can still red box across the country, but I haven't managed to make that happen in nearly a decade now. I keep an mp3 of a quarter on my iPhone, just to show friends how it works when we happen to be near a compatible pay phone. I'd never heard of that app before. I just bought it and it's awesome.

It is a nice app. I have had my iphone for around a month now and it is the first app that I actually decided to pay money for.

[JmanA9]

Some people have claimed they can still red box across the country, but I haven't managed to make that happen in nearly a decade now.

If it's still possible, the calls definitely aren't going through AT&T. I vaguely remember someone saying that in a city where an ILEC owned the OSPS tandem rather than AT&T, it was still possible. Maybe it was a QWEST area in the midwest?

OP, red boxing is likely to work on pay phones that have the phone company's name on them. This isn't always true, because some pay phones are owned by the phone company, but use a computer to count coins instead of the phone switch. On pay phones that are owned by someone other than the local phone company, red boxing will not work.

Edited by JmanA9, 02 May 2011 - 10:00 PM.

[nyphonejacks]

cause some pay phones are owned by the phone company, but use a computer to count coins instead of the phone switch. On pay phones that are owned by someone other than the local phone company, red boxing will not work.

but beige boxing will... on COCOTS, which i assume you are talking about...

[JmanA9]

but beige boxing will... on COCOTS, which i assume you are talking about...

Yes, I was talking about COCOTs, but I didn't want to get too technical since the OP only has a few posts.

[sniper606]

I live in east ky, the 606 area. I'm going out today to try it on more pay phones. I'll let you guys know the results.

[dmine45]

Red boxing, as others have said, still works IF you find a CO controlled payphone that is connected to TOPS. The AT&T coin based LD network that used OSPS went away about 10 years ago. I think OSPS is used in Qwest territory - IF - you can actually find a CO controlled pay phone there it should work.

Though to keep the telco from really getting on your case, I suggest you deposit a real nickel in the phone to complete a circuit. It shows that at least a coin is in the hopper. Otherwise it may raise red flags, if you know what I mean!

[sniper606]

Red boxing, as others have said, still works IF you find a CO controlled payphone that is connected to TOPS. The AT&T coin based LD network that used OSPS went away about 10 years ago. I think OSPS is used in Qwest territory - IF - you can actually find a CO controlled pay phone there it should work.

Though to keep the telco from really getting on your case, I suggest you deposit a real nickel in the phone to complete a circuit. It shows that at least a coin is in the hopper. Otherwise it may raise red flags, if you know what I mean!

So are you telling me that the operator could see that something wasn't right but probably connected the call anyways?

[systems_glitch]

So are you telling me that the operator could see that something wasn't right but probably connected the call anyways?

Most people don't give enough of a shit about their job...we have QA managers who will re-measure components under inspection until they find "right" values rather than dealing with the paperwork for a QA fail.

[sniper606]

What does it mean when you hit 0 on a payphone to dial the op and it says error 49?

[JmanA9]

What does it mean when you hit 0 on a payphone to dial the op and it says error 49?

Sounds like you've found one of those computerized pay phones I was talking about earlier. They're called COCOTs - Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone. Normally, when you dial 0 on one of these, you don't get the operator you would normally get when dialing 0. Instead, the phone almost always dials a toll-free number in the background which connects you with the supplier's operator center. Sometimes you can hear the number being dialed out in the background.

Try dialing *0. On certain models, that gets you the "real" operator, or the one you would get by dialing 0 from a home phone.

[ic0n]

What does it mean when you hit 0 on a payphone to dial the op and it says error 49?

Sounds like that was a Protel model COCOT you found...

Error 49 Call Denied - Phone is set up to deny calls placed to this destination number.

 protel.error.list.pdf   9.96K   4 downloads

Edited by ic0n, 06 May 2011 - 05:23 PM.

[nyphonejacks]

What does it mean when you hit 0 on a payphone to dial the op and it says error 49?

Sounds like that was a Protel model COCOT you found...

Error 49 Call Denied - Phone is set up to deny calls placed to this destination number.

Error Code Listing

nice list... seems like redboxing should result in an error 61

[sniper606]

I haven't tried any more fones that aren't COCOT's yet. I thought I would throw this in here though. I was playing with project mf
http://www.projectmf.org/ and while dialed into it on the iphone you can pull up the Phonal Tonal boxing program and it will recognize the tones right from the iphone. It's pretty fun to play with. Now that I discovered this it makes me even more sad that livengood died.