Thank you.
Thank you.
You're also invited to join the Caravan Border Crossing in Buffalo on May 13th and 14th, which will challenge the U.S. blockade of Cuba.
Call 212-926-5757 for more information.
This announcement is a public service of WBAI-FM Radio on behalf of IFCO, Pastors for Peace, a non-profit community organization.
And it's just about 8 o'clock, which means it's time for another edition of...
Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself off shaving, now I can't make a cough.
It couldn't get much worse, but if I could, they would.
Bumbin' it, bump, but I best expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Bumbin' it, bump!
I'm the operator with my pocket calculator.
I'm adding and subtracting.
I'm controlling and composing.
I'm the operator with my pocket calculator.
I'm adding and subtracting.
I'm controlling and composing.
By pressing down the special key, it plays a little melody.
And a good evening to everybody.
This is Off the Hook.
Emmanuel Goldstein with you.
With some interesting news, I think, during this hour that may change your perception of a few things.
And we'll open up your eyes as to some misperceptions that are being thrown around.
Don't you hate it when I'm so vague?
But we have to wait to get into the specifics until Fiverr gets here because this involves something that affects him.
Let's put it that way.
So we'll be getting to that in just a moment or two.
In the meantime, some exciting news about phone rates and what direction they'll be going for AT&T customers.
AT&T customers can expect lower long-distance phone rates under an agreement between the company and the Federal Communications Commission.
According to Reed Hunt, FCC chairman, I'm sure that under this plan, over the next five years, all kinds of consumers for long-distance will get about $30 billion in rate cuts.
This is the biggest rate reduction in long-distance since the breakup of AT&T.
Hunt said the plan will mean a break, though not as big a one for customers with second phone lines in their homes, a growing number given increasing use of computers that have their own phone hookup.
Now, this is kind of interesting because he says, this is the FCC chief, saying that this plan is going to mean a break in people with second phone lines.
And then the FCC, the organization that he's the head of, is expected to increase charges on customers that have multiple phone lines.
So, you know, I think we're getting it from all ends at the same time.
Customers with multiple lines likely will pay at least $2.50 more a month, and businesses will pay about $0.64 more a month as part of the FCC's plan.
In addition, the plan contemplates a new flat-rate charge, brand-new flat-rate charge for you people that just love these new charges.
That will be $0.75 a month for nothing in particular for all residential customers.
AT&T promised over the weekend that to reduce its basic schedule, scheduled prices 5% during the day and evening.
And 15% on nights and weekends.
Amazing.
Fiber, I can't believe you're here this fast.
That's amazing.
You were down in Battery Park only about three minutes ago.
Yeah, I made an amazing time.
What, you soared through the skies.
Yeah, I gave that cab driver an extra tip.
That's good.
That's good.
Okay.
Grab a chair because we have some things.
Actually, you know what it is because we had to do it before, but it's certainly going to involve things that are part of...
Actually, you can't move him this week because he's part of the show this week.
So you have to take somebody else.
Yes.
Yeah, we have another special surprise during this week that some people might find disturbing, but it's part of radio nonetheless.
Speaking of disturbing things, I don't know, do you read the New York Times newspaper that's been making the rounds?
I try not to.
I do get their headlines, though.
Yeah.
Apparently, it's one of these alternative things that comes out every day.
And this one has to do with digital TV and cable TV.
I'm just going to read you a few choice bits of this, and you tell me if I'm alone in thinking that these people are out of their minds.
While the broadcast television networks are busily buying equipment so they can begin offering crystal-clear digital high-definition programs starting next year,
the nation's cable directors or operators, rather, are going in the opposite direction.
The major cable companies are placing orders for digital equipment that will allow them to expand their program offerings and reduce the quality of the pictures they transmit.
Great.
TCI, Telecommunications Inc., the nation's largest cable company, serving 14 million subscribers nationwide,
intends to begin offering digital programming soon with only half the resolution of today's cable broadcasts.
I mean, I don't know what these people are thinking.
Is there, like, a demand for lower quality in picture?
Already, America has the worst picture quality in the whole world because we use this NTSC garbage as opposed to PAL and C-CAM.
I think what they're figuring is that they're trying to cram more stations into as little bandwidth as possible.
That's right.
That's exactly what they're trying to do.
They're trying to quickly add, because you have these satellite things, you know, these satellite DSS services that offer you a couple hundred channels.
I think like up to 300 channels.
Hmm.
And the picture quality is quite good, but there's no way cable companies can compete with this, so they have to do something quickly.
Now, TCI hasn't upgraded most of its systems around the country with fiber optic cable and other advances that would allow the company to offer more channels.
But with digital compression, TCI is planning what one of their senior vice presidents calls an electronic rebuild,
using very high levels of compression to increase our channel capacity.
The result will be half-resolution images, VHS-quality pictures, as they are known in the industry.
Now, when a consumer records a television show on a VHS videotape, the taping process degrades the image quality,
leaving a picture only about half as clear as the original.
Now, this is the best part.
Since millions of Americans watch VHS videotapes, this senior vice president, who soon will be looking for a job, I think,
said his company decided that VHS-level resolution would be good enough.
Even companies that plan to use compression schemes that are less extreme may end up transmitting some half-resolution programming
because many of them plan to buy pay-per-view movies and other programming from TCI.
It's just not in the cards economically for most cable systems to do digital compression on their own,
so most cable companies are piggybacking onto TCI.
Well, this guy, Robert Zitter, a senior vice president with HBO, is a bit more sane.
He says, I think using VHS-quality resolution is a mistake.
The consumer benchmark for video quality is changing, and to position yourself with 15-year-old technology doesn't make sense.
I don't know. I mean, how are they possibly going to lure consumers this way?
Now, if they broadcast something using VHS-quality video, and then we tape it, I mean, it's twice as bad now?
Yeah, but you're looking at the future 10 years from now when they double it again.
Oh.
That's what you'll be seeing.
It's insane.
You know, I don't have any answers for the cable companies, but that's not the answer, all right?
Going and cutting your signal quality by half is not the answer.
Have you seen this DSS, though? I just had an opportunity to play with it.
No, I never actually played with it, other than seeing it, like, in the window of Radio Shack or on TV.
It's kind of neat, except for one major flaw, and that's that nobody has an answer for what if you're not in the 30-degree angle that you need to be to pick up this satellite that's, like, orbiting over Chile or something that nobody can seem to get around here.
Well, there's another minor problem, too, and that's the fact that if you want to do pay-per-view, you need to tie up your telephone.
Well, just to place the order, I think.
Yeah, just to place the order.
Well, do you have to do the same thing here if you don't see a smart box?
No, I could do it right on my remote.
Okay, but most people can't.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, you make a single phone call.
That's not really a big deal.
Yeah, but I don't know.
Besides, how else are they going to keep track of you?
I think they've got to keep tabs on you somehow.
Yeah, well, the thing isn't bidirectional.
That's the problem.
And it can't be the way it is.
Well, not like that, but it's bidirectional in that it uses the phone line for you to transmit your information, and it comes over the satellite.
But, I mean, I think it's really cool, but I just wish they would think of people that don't have line-of-sight vision.
And, you know, I asked people at the Wiz and, you know, J&R, and basically it's like, no, you've got to have this or you can't do it.
And, you know, I mean, how many people have a direct line-of-sight?
I mean, a lot of people in New York do not have these things called buildings in the way.
Yeah, they're selling them in Manhattan.
Nobody in Manhattan has that kind of line-of-sight.
Nobody.
Yeah.
I challenge somebody to find a single person, unless they're like, oh, okay, we found one person.
Okay, there's some people.
Who lives on the water.
Well, yeah.
All right.
You know, it's possible.
I think if they position something straight up in the air, you know, we'll have a better chance of getting it, don't you?
Yeah, I think so.
So, is there some sort of a reason why they can't put a satellite over there?
Straight up in the air?
Well, obviously straight up in the air, but I mean at that particular latitude.
What, do you have an answer for that?
Hold on a second.
I've got to figure out what microphone you are at.
Go ahead.
They're beaming it off a geosynchronous satellite.
That's why it's so low in the sky to the south.
Right, it has to orbit over the equator.
Right, because otherwise the satellite loses, because of friction, it doesn't stay over, well, because of the orbit, it doesn't stay over the same spot on Earth.
So, you'd have to adjust your antenna constantly.
Are you saying that it's impossible for them to do this?
No, but what it would require is a tracking satellite.
They're selling you a cheap little dish that stays fixed.
Right.
Okay, the reason is because the satellite relative to you on Earth is fixed.
It's geosynchronous.
It's over a point on the equator.
It is orbiting as fast as the Earth is turning, so it's always, quote, over that point, unquote.
Could they make a satellite that would always be over the point except at a higher latitude?
The problem with that is to stay over New York City or any other point over the equator, it would have to go faster, which means that it would have to be powered.
They would constantly have to be rocketing this thing along.
Well, maybe it could be powered by our subscription fees.
Well, okay, let's suppose that it is, okay?
Take the problem seriously from a physics standpoint.
Eventually, they can only put so much reaction fuel in it, okay, to toss out, to keep it going.
I want to watch five HBOs.
What's the problem?
Well, eventually, if space stations become practical, you could have a manned station that they would eventually, you know, go up every year and put more reaction mass into and keep it going.
Couldn't they, in theory, power the thing with that big hydrogen ball known as the sun?
No, because you need to throw off mass, reaction mass, to keep the satellite going.
Well, this is getting entirely too cerebral here.
So, let's just get back to what's cool about it, if you are lucky enough to be able to get something like that.
You know what the coolest thing in the whole setup was?
What?
It had nothing to do with TV.
It was the audio channels.
I thought you were going to say the golf channel.
No, that's pretty cool, though.
No.
You know, I have it on good authority that people in Manhattan will be getting the golf channel.
It's one of those ten expanded channels that you're getting.
I got the scoop on that, what the ten channels are.
Anyway, the thing is, the coolest thing about this whole thing is one of the, well, a bunch of the audio channels.
That's where they just play music all the time, and they use all these, you know, CDs.
They don't have any DJs or anything like that, but they play a large variety.
It's not like it repeats every hour.
It repeats maybe, you know, every few days or something.
But imagine this, uncensored rap music.
Totally uncensored.
There's no place.
You can't turn on MTV and see that.
They don't play that.
You can't turn on the radio.
Even the pirate stations, you know.
You can turn on much music.
They don't play uncensored either.
Really?
No, not totally uncensored.
Of course, yeah.
They have to.
It's a thing called the FCC that regulates them.
If you found a premium channel music station, then you'd have something.
Or a pirate radio station.
Or a pirate, yes.
And, you know, unfortunately, pirates tend to be a little bit low in power, you know,
and it's kind of hard to get, and you have to do all kinds of finagling around.
So that's the coolest thing, in my view, is the variety of music that you have.
You know, there's like 30 different channels, different types of music.
I thought it would all be crap, but it isn't.
It isn't.
They actually play some good material there.
So that impressed me.
So we should all move to waterfront property.
Well, I don't know.
I mean, it's a silly thing.
There's got to be a way to solve this, and I'm waiting for somebody to come up with it.
All right.
Anyway, enough of that.
I don't really want to talk about cable TV too much.
What we have, though, is a bit of a...
I would call this a scandal.
Now, you already know what it is.
Would you say it's a bit of a scandal?
I wouldn't call it a scandal.
I would consider it a feature.
Okay.
We're coming from diametrically opposed views on this.
Now, I guess the best thing to do is just present what we have, show it to people, and let them decide for themselves if this is, in fact, a scandal or if this is, in fact, something good, like a feature, as you say.
Now, we did some recording earlier in the day.
Do we have a dial tone?
Okay, we do.
And what we're going to do now is try and access that for you.
Let me just start off by saying that the...
I guess maybe you could explain the concept behind caller ID.
Just caller ID.
Nothing beyond that.
Okay.
And what people get when they use something like, you know, blocking to block their caller ID from being transmitted.
Okay.
Well, we should clarify that.
Star 67 doesn't block the caller ID from being transmitted.
Okay.
Right.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's true.
The caller ID is always transmitted.
Star 67 says that the person who you're calling, their switch should not tell them what the number is.
Uh-huh.
It's always sent.
Okay.
Now, basically, this information is sent whenever you make a call if you're connected to a signaling system 7 network.
Okay.
Or the phone company.
Okay.
And that's definitely a feature, and I don't think people would argue with that unless, of course, they can't block their number and they'd like to.
So, which could certainly be a problem.
But we're about to show you something that...
No, we're not, because the BI phone system has struck again.
Uh-oh.
So, we're going to have to wait a few minutes until it resets.
Ah.
So, give us a little bit more of a definition of how caller ID technology works.
Okay.
While I try to fix this.
Basically, signaling system 7, SS7, is technology that came about in the early 80s, which was actually based on technology from the mid-70s.
Uh, that was, uh, pioneered by AT&T and the Bell system.
And what it basically does is it provides, uh, phone company switches, the computers that, uh, complete your calls, to, uh, communicate directly with each other over separate digital channels than your, uh, than your voices go over.
Uh, and, uh, caller ID is a feature that was, uh, dreamed up by, uh, the nice, uh, guys and gals at Bellcore, uh, in order to, uh, take advantage of, uh, this, this, uh, digital data to, uh, to provide new custom calling services.
Uh, caller ID is, uh, is, uh, is one of these services.
And basically what it does is, uh, whenever somebody makes a call, uh, initially it was local, and, uh, ultimately, as it is now, it works over, over long distances.
Uh, whenever you make a call, your, uh, your phone number and, uh, some other little pieces of information which you don't have access to are, uh, are transmitted to, uh, to the switch at the other end to the person you're calling.
All right, those little beeps there, uh, mean that, uh, you don't have to talk anymore.
Oh, great.
Because, because we're, uh, rewinding the tape that, uh, we've remotely programmed to contain this information.
Now, let me just explain what people are going to hear.
You, you, you finished basically what you were saying, right?
Yeah, I think people get the general.
This, we're dialing 958 on this phone number to get the phone, the phone number.
Right.
From the phone company.
This is what it is.
Four, seven, four, two, six, seven, seven.
Okay, that's our fax line.
And, uh, we, we, we basically did that to show that that's the number that we were dialing out from.
Now, the next thing we did, we called the 2600 voicemail system.
And what this will do is, is demonstrate this line does not have caller ID blocking.
All right, so we're going to use a little feature that we have installed on that particular voicemail system that we've demonstrated here before, uh, that will play your number if it's not blocked.
Listen.
If you're going to make a call, please hang up and try again.
If you need help, stay on the line, and a hacker will assist you shortly.
Welcome to the 2600 voice BBS.
To enter the BBS section, press one.
To enter the 2600 voicemail system, press two.
To voice files, press three.
For special phone services, press four.
This is the phone services section.
Press one if you have a string of touchstones you'd like us to decode.
Press two if you'd like us to tell you your caller ID info.
5, 1, 6, 4, 7, 4, 2, 6, 7, 7.
Okay, so as you see, the number was transmitted because we did not block the number.
Now, we're calling the voice bulletin board again, but this time we're dialing star 6, 7.
And you get the little pulsing dial tone to indicate that star 6, 7 has gone through.
And now we're going to do the exact same thing, and you'll see that the number this time is not transmitted.
It's all very understandable, isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Okay, let's listen.
If you're back to make a call, please hang up and try again.
If you need help, stay on the line, and a hacker will assist you shortly.
Welcome to the 2600 voice BBS.
This is the phone services section.
Press one if you have a string of touch tones you'd like us to decode.
Press two if you'd like us to tell you your caller ID info.
Your caller ID is blocked, meaning caller ID info was sent, but showing up as private.
Okay, so as you see, that works pretty well.
Now what we're doing is we're calling your Omnipoint phone.
Right.
And listen.
We very distinctly dialed star 6, 7 first to block the numbers.
So let's see what happens.
If your phone rings, on your telephone, you will see that the number was blocked.
Right.
It'll say blocked.
Right.
Now, I believe when we did this, you did not pick up your phone, so it forwarded over to voicemail, and we left a message for you.
Let's listen.
You should be able to tell when it trips over, the ring will be slightly different.
There it is right there.
Hi, this is Mark.
I'm not around at the moment, so please leave me a message.
If this message is urgent, please press the number 5 after the message, or you can page me by pressing the number 1, or you can send me a fax by pressing the number 8.
Thank you.
Hello, Fiverr.
This is Emanuel.
I'm calling you from my private line.
No, you can't find out what number I'm calling from because I hit star 6, 7 before I called you, and that, as I am told, is my only method of securing my privacy on this phone line.
I'd like to be able to share this information with you, but for the moment, I'm afraid it must remain in my hands.
Yours sincerely, Emanuel.
Okay, and that's the message that I left for you.
Now, imagine my surprise when you proceeded to do this.
You have one saved message.
To listen to your messages, press 1.
To send a message, press 2.
Saved message, Tuesday, 4, 11 p.m.
Telephone number, 5, 1, 6, 4, 7, 4, 2, 6, 7, 7.
Hello, Fiverr.
This is Emanuel.
I'm calling you from my private line.
No, you can't find out what number I said.
Okay, we all know what I said.
Now, what gives?
I blocked my number.
I called your number, and yet somehow, you got my number anyway.
Now, you're not an 800 number.
You're not a 900 number.
I know that if I call that, I know if I call 911, they'll get my number some other way,
but you're just a regular phone number.
How is it that you have my blocked number?
Well, my working theory is that the voicemail system can receive ANI.
They can receive ANI, meaning that they get the number a different way
and pass it on to you anyway, regardless of what the person does.
Right.
Does Omnipoint advertise this?
No, they do not.
Is this part of their privacy thing, where nobody can find out certain things about you?
It doesn't seem very in keeping with that.
Well, I think it's great, because it works for the person who owns the phone.
So, you're a staunch supporter of caller ID, then.
Well, you would say that we should not be able to have blocking in this area,
just like places like Virginia.
I wouldn't say that, but what I would say is that if I'm going to answer my phone,
which I have to pay for, I have to pay for incoming calls.
Yeah, except you're not answering the phone.
If you try to answer your phone, it says blocked.
If it goes to voicemail, though, that's where you get this.
Well, then it puts it back in my hands.
If I look at my phone, and I see the phone number of the person calling,
and I recognize it, then I'd be more than happy to pay for the incoming call.
But if I see that the person isn't sending their number and caller ID for whatever reason,
I can just refuse the call and let it trip over to voicemail,
and then find out what their number was after the fact.
Sounds like you're ambushing them to me.
That's what it sounds like.
Well, that's why I consider it a feature.
I felt violated.
I really did.
I mean, here I am calling somebody, trying to block my number,
thinking that I can block the number, and it's just a regular phone number.
Regular phone number, and yet somehow, I mean, is this legal?
Can they do this?
I mean, it doesn't sound like it fits in with the tariffs very well.
Well, I don't know, but as far as I'm concerned,
why should big businesses with 800 numbers and sex lines on 900 lines
be the only people that can access A&I information?
Well, yeah, okay, that's fine.
But you should follow the same rules they do.
You know, I mean, if you call a business using a regular phone number,
unless they're using Omnipoint,
I don't think that they're able to see your phone number if you block it.
Are they?
No.
Okay.
Well, they can get an 800 number.
Yeah, and so can you.
And if you want to get an 800 number, you know,
you can read everyone's number that comes in,
and most people know that when they call an 800 number,
since you're paying for the phone call, you know, you'll see their number.
Well, okay, let's think about this.
There was a time when people didn't know that,
and it took them some time to learn this fact,
and I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that still don't know
that when they call a 700, 800, or 900 number,
that their phone number is sent through A&I,
regardless of whether or not they dial star 67.
But in actuality, most people's awareness of this
came before caller ID was even introduced.
Right.
A&I started to be sent over 800 and 900 numbers,
and then caller ID was introduced.
So I think, you know, they'd have to be pretty brain-dead
not to realize that their number is being sent that way.
Okay, well, just think.
There's just that little extra learning curve hop.
So now you could say 700, 800, 900 numbers in Omnipoint voicemail.
And how are we supposed to know if we're getting an Omnipoint voicemail?
I mean, here we're lucky because we've got 917, all right?
We know 917 area code now, you know, can be used in that particular manner.
But, I mean, you know, you could have Omnipoint in different parts of the country
that doesn't use a particular area code that's pretty much integrated
with the rest of the telephone service.
Right.
And you'll never know when you're calling someone's cell phone or regular phone,
when your number's being transmitted and when it isn't.
It just seems to me it's confusing people even more
and making privacy even less of a, you know, of something that you can hold on to.
Oh, I always thought privacy was a false sense of security anyway.
Well, this certainly proves it, doesn't it?
So, I don't know, I'm pretty amazed that this could actually happen
and that no one's discovered it up until now.
But we've discovered it and I guess a lot of people know about it.
And I'm curious as to what their reaction is going to be if, you know,
could this be a mistake, do you think?
Um, it could possibly be a mistake, but I'd be awful disappointed if it went away.
Really? So you as a customer like this?
I like this as a feature and I think that rather than attempting to fix the problem,
they should turn it around and advertise it as a feature.
But how would you tell people making the phone calls, you know, that, uh,
how do you explain to them, well, you can block, but it might not work.
You know, that's like the best I can do.
Because you can't really differentiate by area code in most parts of the country.
You just can't.
Here you can, but, you know, certainly not every number in 917 is going to act the same way.
But how do you, I mean, if you call someone's portable phone,
maybe your number will be transmitted, but how do you know if you're calling someone's portable phone?
Okay, then what if they did a compromise?
What if they were forced to announce the fact that it was Omnipoint?
How about they're forced to announce the fact that your number is being received?
And you can hang up now if you don't want that to remain on there.
Well, see, if they went on, if they went on, like, a big, uh, advertising campaign
and every single commercial they said, and we pass A&I info to voicemail,
if they put that as a feature in all the major magazines, newspapers, and television commercials,
then it would get, then the word would get out and people would know this.
Then in order for people to be able to differentiate if the number they were calling is Omnipoint,
maybe they could just program it into the, uh, the voicemail system.
So that whenever it goes to voicemail, right before it plays your greeting, it says Omnipoint,
and then it plays your greeting.
Yeah, but you see, what, what, what you're forgetting is that the advertisements are geared
towards the people that buy the phones, not towards the people that call the phones.
Yeah.
That's, that's the thing.
I'm not an Omnipoint customer.
I call, I was an Omnipoint victim.
I, I called you and my number got seized and then transmitted, you know?
How many times is this happening?
It seems like clever incentive to get you to subscribe.
Uh, yeah, yeah, I guess, I guess that's what it is.
I certainly feel like subscribing now.
Uh, if people want a demonstration of this, um, this technology, all you have to do is
call, uh, an 800 number that receives ANI, such as AT&T's 800-222-0300, and you can dial
star 6-7 as many times as you like before that, but you'll still hear your number, um, read
back to you once you make a selection on that particular number.
Same thing here.
It appears to be the same thing.
It's, it's odd because, you know, initially, like we say, when you make the phone call on
your phone, it shows up as you send it.
If you dial star 6-7 or have your line blocked, it'll say blocked number, right?
Is that what it says on your phone?
No, actually, it doesn't show any number.
Okay, it shows no number at all.
If I go back and look in the log, it'll say restricted.
Okay.
But then, the trick is to let voicemail pick up.
If voicemail picks up, then you get the person's number.
And, uh, I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's kind of frightening, and I think a lot
of people might have just, you know, blithely thought that their number was being blocked.
Well, so far, it's worked in my favor.
I was getting a number of, uh, prank phone calls, and I completely, uh, caught those people
unawares when I got the number they were calling from.
Yeah, well, they thought they were blocking themselves, I guess.
But, uh, you know, okay, that's, that's an example where, you know, it could be used
for the, for the, you know, the side of good.
But there's other, you know, evil people can get these Omnipoint phones, too, you know,
and, and, you know, it can be, it can be turned around.
Well, possibly.
It can be turned around.
Whenever you have some, you know, things that aren't quite clear, and technology is, is,
you know, smoke and mirrors, there are victims.
Yeah, but I'm not telling anybody to call me.
I'm giving people my number specifically.
Mm-hmm.
You know, it's not like I'm advertising my phone number.
Right.
I mean, if somebody got the phone just so they could find out people's phone numbers
and advertise it as some service, then, you know, then we could say that it's questionable
that they're using it to find out people's numbers who thought they were blocking it.
Well, I mean, you could be someone disreputable that gets people to call your number by putting
an advertisement in a paper, you know?
Well, I agree.
And then all these people will call you thinking it's not a premium call, which it isn't.
It's not an 800 call, which it isn't.
Right.
It's just a regular phone number, which it'll look like to many people.
And then their number all of a sudden, I mean, think of the FBI using this as some
sort of a sting.
Yeah.
You know, it'd be easy.
Well, if it's the FBI, they contact the phone company and get everybody's phone number.
All the FBI has to do is get a little Omnipoint phone with voicemail and put some enticing
ad in a newspaper someplace and have all these people call and there's no way anyone can block
their number and no way anybody will know their number is being sent.
You know, I think that's kind of scary.
We've seen this work from Canada.
You know, it works over international borders.
I don't know where else it's going to work from.
Yeah.
So, interesting.
I'd like to know what people think about that.
And we'll be taking phone calls in just about five minutes or so.
212-279-3400.
We have a special guest with us today.
Welcome to the studio's Rebel.
How are you?
That's right.
For some reason, your microphone is refusing to work.
Let's speak into it.
Okay, go ahead.
It's the on button.
That's why.
Okay.
All this talk about Omnipoint, I have a simple solution to this, Fiber.
What's that?
Have the operator dial the number for you.
Well, yeah, but you can't have the operator dialing every single number for you.
They'd have to hire more operators.
And we know that's not patriotic.
I mean, if you want your privacy, that's what I do.
I mean, I have the operator dial numbers for me if I don't want my number passed.
Well, now, you're about to demonstrate something for us.
And we mentioned this a week ago as far as being able to somehow make something, because
this happened to me somehow, somehow an operator-assisted call, not really an operator-assisted call,
but a call you can only make with the assistance of an operator to oversees information showed
up on my bill.
You can't make the call directly.
You have to call an operator and say, please connect me to this, and you get billed 795 every
time you do this.
And I got into this discussion with AT&T about it, and they said, well, sir, you know,
there's no way this call could have been made any other way.
Now, you believe differently.
Is that right?
Yes.
Okay.
So what we're going to do now, we're going to get our dial tone.
We're going to get a 9X operator.
You're going to convince this 9X operator to connect us to an 800 number, correct?
Because you're special.
Right?
All right.
That's basically what's going to happen.
And by doing this, we're going to be able to make it happen the exact same way.
In fact, I'm saying right now that we can bill this to the same line that we called from
before.
You know, no confirmation, nothing like that.
You know, it's just going to show up.
And this permission only goes for the people in this room, folks.
You know, it doesn't mean everybody out there listening can do the same thing.
And if you do, it's just going to involve more paperwork.
On AT&T's part, not mine.
Okay, so shall we get the operator?
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's get data.
Good luck.
9X Regis?
Yes, I'd like to call 800-225.
I'm sorry, I forgot to say I have operator privileges.
Okay, what is the number?
It's 800-225-5288.
AT&T, may I have the number you're calling from, please?
Oh, yes.
The number I'm calling from is area code 516-4...
I can't hear what both of you talking.
What was it?
I'm sorry, 516-474-2677.
Okay, now what number are you calling?
I'd like to know, I'd like to actually call overseas information in England.
Okay, there's a charge.
How are you billing it?
To the phone I'm calling from?
I can't.
You've called me on 1-800-CALL-ATT.
Oh, okay, so I'd have to bill it another way.
I can bill it to my calling card, I guess, but I don't have that number with me.
Do you have a MasterCard American Express Diner's Club?
No, I don't have those either.
I'll have to call back.
Okay.
Thank you.
Well, that didn't work too well, did it?
Well, apparently you can bill it to your calling card, and on your calling card it will show up as you called from 516-473-47...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's not what happened.
What happened was someone made it actually show up on the bill?
There's another 800 number, which I don't think works anymore.
You can do it with TDD.
I don't have that number.
Somebody, Bernie S. had that number.
It was printed at 2600.
The TDD number for 800...
But you need a TDD machine to do that.
Right, but there's a lot of TDD pay phones, and all you have to do is pick up the TDD, dial the operator, and have them, instead of dialing 800-CALL-ATT, have them call the 800 number for the TDD.
You're saying that the TDD 800 number doesn't have the same security as the regular 800 number?
That's right.
They ask you for your phone number because it's an 800 number.
Did this ever work, where we called AT&T and just had them bill to the number they thought you were calling from?
You can make collect calls that way.
I've tried it with my own phone by just playing around.
I made a collect call to my own house, to my own phone, saying that I was calling from California.
I made up a number in California, and it showed up on the bill like that.
Amazing, and scary.
Now, there's an 800 number there that I'd like you to try that.
We're going to try the 800 number just a little bit, but we're going to give the callers a chance to call in because we see them waiting patiently on the line there.
And we'd like your opinion on this, and also, of course, the Omnipoint thing that we just pointed out in moments past.
We'll be trying this special 800 number in just a couple of minutes.
Let's go to the phones.
212-279-3400 is our phone number.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yeah, this is Triad from White Plains.
How you doing?
Okay, I just have a comment that sort of relates to the situation with the Omnipoint.
About two years ago, I was in a southern state where I used to reside, and I was on cellular one there, the A channel provider there.
Okay.
The B channel was like the local telco.
It was Sprint at the time.
At any rate, my fiancée was in Japan.
I needed to make a call to her one evening.
I had unlimited weekends and unlimited evenings.
After 8 o'clock, it was totally free airtime.
So I decided to call her from my cellular phone, and I knew I would have long-distance charges international, but, you know, the airtime was free,
so I assumed it would be the same rate as if I paid her from a regular phone.
So I dialed 011 and then the international code and the number, and it wouldn't go through.
It gave me some error message, so I called the operator and just punched zero, and I told her my dilemma.
I said, I need to make an international call, and I gave her the number, and she punched me through.
So I talked to my fiancée for a few minutes, hung up, and told her I would call her back later.
So I tried again, used the same method.
This time, when I punched zero for the operator, I gave her the number.
She said, I can't bill you because you're calling me from a mobile phone.
And I said, well, you know, that's odd because I just called her earlier, and there was no problem.
She said, no, that's impossible.
So I ended up getting a supervisor on the phone.
The supervisor came on, and I explained the situation to her.
I said, ma'am, I talked to her earlier for like half an hour.
There was no problem.
She said, no, sir, that's impossible because you're on a cellular phone, and we can't bill you on your cellular phone.
And I said, well, you know, what's that mean?
And she said, well, you weren't billed for the call.
So instead of pressing the issue, I hung up, and I tried back again about half an hour later, and again, tried the zero, tried the operator, got through.
It worked the third time.
Yeah, it worked actually every single time.
I did some statistics, and about 10% of the time, I would get a rep who would not let the call go through.
They wouldn't put me into international equipment.
But all the other times, you know, it would work.
Did you ever get billed for those calls?
That's what was interesting.
I decided not to press it, so I waited a month.
I got my bill from a cellular company.
It showed the log of the call, and it showed where I had punched zero, but the airtime was free, and it was no long distance.
Wow.
Yeah, so this was a really nice feature, considering.
That's a calling plan I can live with.
Yeah, it saved me about $4,000.
I tallied it up over the three months that I did it throughout the summer until she came back from Japan, and it saved me about $4,000.
You should be doing commercials for them.
Yeah, yeah.
This is actually a piece of information that I haven't released.
The little technique no longer works, unfortunately.
I'm in New York now, and before I was in a southern state, I won't mention the state, but it no longer works there.
I did some research, though, and during the time that I was trying this method and it was working, I pulled the ANI on my cellular phone, and it gave me not my cellular phone number, but it gave me another local number, which I assume was like the tower, whatever that was transmitting the call.
And what I did is I called that number, the ANI that it gave me.
Don't tell me.
You got a disconnected or a not-in-service recording, right?
No, I got 911.
You got 911?
I swear to God, as I sit here, I got 911, and the guy said, what's your emergency?
I almost, you know, crapped in my pants.
I was like, wait a second.
And he said, you know, do you have an emergency?
I said, no.
And I said, where do you show me calling from?
And he said X city, which was not the city I was in, so I assume he was getting a mixed signal because I was in the vehicle traveling.
Wow.
Yeah, after that, it worked for several months, and I shared it with some friends of mine who are, you know, they're not Americans.
They've got friends overseas, and needless to say, I sold Cellular One a lot of phones that year.
Yeah, but probably in the long run, they probably would have preferred that you have not done that.
Oh, I'm sure they would.
Yeah, I say that in jest.
But basically, the plan stopped working, and when it did, I tried to get it to work in some other ways.
I tried the access codes for Sprint and MCI and AT&T, and none of those would work.
And upon contacting my cellulophone company to try to find out maybe what had happened, I discovered that MCI was the long-distance carrier at that point.
It had been changed from AT&T, and I had no choice as far as who I could choose from my long distance.
I said, well, I want to be carried by AT&T because that's who I use for, you know, my residential service.
They said, no, you don't have any choice.
It's got to be MCI.
I wrote the GTE Telecom, which owns Cellular One in that state.
They're headquartered in Atlanta, and, you know, they just gave me the round, and I couldn't get anywhere at all.
But I just share that in case there's anybody.
I was in a very remote area, a rural area, and, you know, I want to share that in case anybody else might want to try it and give it a shot.
I don't know why I got 911, and if Fiber or somebody else there could maybe enlighten me on that, it was pretty bizarre.
Okay, well, speculate. Thanks for calling.
Thank you.
All right. Any idea why...
It just sounds like a grand error in routing.
Yeah, somebody messed up the programming, something fierce there.
Yeah, that's...
Allowing billing A and then somehow having... I mean, maybe they could double up the numbers somehow.
Well, in the case of the operators putting the call through, there is nothing physically preventing them from just putting a call through.
Mm-hmm.
The thing is that they're supposed to take note of what the class of service is, the fact that it's a mobile phone, and, you know, they should be trained to know that they shouldn't be putting the call through.
Right, but it sounds like most of the time they didn't know it was a mobile phone.
They thought it was that actual number that he was coming from, being routed from.
It sounds like either the class of service was screwed up, that they didn't know it was a mobile phone on the one hand, or on the other hand, they might have just been stupid and didn't know that they couldn't bill back to a mobile phone and just put the call through.
Have you ever heard of a case where a line is used for outgoing calls for cellular and then incoming for something else, like 911?
No, I've never heard of anything else.
It seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
Yeah.
But, you know, I suppose it's possible.
I'd like to know if anyone else has experienced something like that.
Let's take some more phone calls.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Speak up, please.
Yes.
Is this the WBAI?
Yes, you're on the air.
Okay, listen, this is what I wanted to ask you.
You were talking earlier in the program about that you have to press 6-7 in order to block the call.
Star 6-7.
What's that?
That's star 6-7.
Yes.
Now, on my phone, one second.
Yes.
I don't know if the phone has a mouthpiece, but I...
It says that I should press star 6-7, just a second.
What do you want to bet?
It's written underneath it.
Send your number.
In other words, I have call restricts on my phone.
Oh, you know what you...
Okay, what you have...
Are you in New York?
Yes.
Okay, that's an old sticker, because it used to be that star 6-7 was a toggle switch.
If you had privacy turned on, star 6-7 would turn it off, but that's changed.
Now, if you want to send your number, you dial star 8-2.
So, that's the only way you can send your number.
If you have privacy enabled, star 8-2 will send the number.
If you don't, star 6-7 will still block it.
But star 6-7 will not unblock your number.
Right.
You said star 6-7 will do what for me now?
Star 6-7 will block your number if you don't have blocking.
If you do have blocking, it won't do anything.
Star 8-2 will unblock your number if you're blocking and won't do anything.
In other words, if I have call restriction, they cannot get my number.
No, if you have all-call restrict, only if you dial star 8-2 before your number.
That's the only way they're going to get your number in that method.
No problem.
Very much.
Okay, I appreciate it.
Okay.
Very helpful.
Thank you.
And I love your program.
Well, thanks.
I just want to ask one quick.
I haven't heard your program in a long time.
How is our friend Bernie S. coming along?
Oh, Bernie S. is doing just fine.
He's living in Philadelphia, and he's working.
That's what I wanted to tell him.
I never contacted him, but I'm very happy to know that he came through that difficult situation.
I admire the way he put it behind him, and it's going on.
Okay.
Very good.
Thanks very much for your support.
Bye.
All right.
Well, that's fine.
I didn't want to tell her about the Omnipoint thing.
No.
See, you tell people star 6-7 will block.
No matter what.
But he can't say that, really, because if they call one of these Omnipoint phones, then it won't block.
Well, for that matter, does she know that if she calls an 800 number, that it's going to pass her number anyway?
It's easier to say that.
It's easier to say 800s and 900s, you know, that's, you know, your number will be transmitted a different way.
It's easier to say when you call the police, your number will be transmitted a different way.
How do you say when you call people who subscribe to a certain cellular company and use this particular phone,
and you leave voicemail for them, you know, that's when your number is going to be transmitted?
Well, I found that recently, if somebody has an Omnipoint phone, they like bragging about that fact.
Uh-huh.
So they'd probably tell the person that they gave their number, too, that it was an Omnipoint phone.
Perhaps.
But it seems like there's a lot of, you know, a lot of weird scenarios being put forth here.
Possibly.
Okay.
Let's take one more phone call, then we'll call that 800 number.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes, go ahead.
Speak up.
Yeah, I want to know about that three-digit number to get your number.
About what?
Three-digit number.
Oh, that's 958.
958, thanks.
Okay.
Well, that was a simple question.
We should add a little note to that, 958.
Okay, go ahead.
That if it doesn't read your number, it means your phone is broken.
It doesn't mean that you're being traced.
Well, no, no.
The whole urban legend is if you don't hear a fast, busy signal after you hear the number,
that means your phone is being tapped, which is utter nonsense.
It always has been.
Oh, or that if it doesn't read your number at all.
Well, I think that just means it's broken.
Yeah, that means 958 is broken.
Yeah.
958 doesn't work.
Sometimes 511 works, and there are other things as well.
Good evening.
Oh, forget that one.
Let's try this one.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yeah, speak up.
Okay, yeah.
I got a question about when they were talking about using star 67.
Yes.
Transfer the number over.
Yeah, I've been playing around with that on caller ID phones or friends and stuff.
But also, there's myths and legends about PRS programs and other programs for modems that
they change a single.
That's just full.
And while we're on the subject of tracing and whatnot, just don't let people know.
Okay.
But also, another thing with star 67, people use that on America Online for the 1-800 number.
Does it even matter with that?
Because I know the hard...
No, there's no way you can block when you...
Unless you call through an operator, you can't block your number when you call an 800 number.
Okay.
That's really what that...
Let's clear that up because...
Okay, thanks.
All right, no problem.
Bye-bye.
One more call, then we'll call the internet number.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Oops.
Yeah, I picked up the same line.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello?
Hello?
Yes, go ahead.
Is this off the hook?
Yes, you're on the air.
Oh, hi.
This is Jack.
I'm sorry.
I just got to turn down my radio.
I got a question for Fiber.
Okay.
Sure.
That Omnipoint phone.
Right.
How do you get a fax on there?
Actually, what the voicemail system can do is if somebody selects the touchtone option
to send me a fax, the voicemail system sends them a fax carrier.
Ah.
And they can transmit the fax, and then the fax gets stored by the voicemail system.
Uh-huh.
Very cool.
Yeah, and I have an option in the voicemail system to tell it where to deliver the fax to.
Oh, so you don't have to put little rolls of paper in.
I don't know.
I was wondering how you did that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm imagining like a roll of paper spitting out of Fiber's mouth as you're getting the
incoming calls there.
Second question.
Actually, it's a point.
Don't run ActiveX.
If anybody's out there using Microsoft Explorer, don't run ActiveX.
Well, you leave out a more important fact is don't use NT and don't use 95, and you'll
be perfectly safe.
Yeah, run Linux, and you'll be just fine.
Oh, yeah.
I don't know about that.
I do know about that, but never mind.
Okay.
The last point is, has anybody played around with AT&T Wireless' service?
You mean they're pseudo-PCS?
Yeah, they're pseudo-PCS.
We talked about it.
We haven't really played with it because I don't know anybody who has it.
Well, I had a friend of mine got service to them, okay?
And he got a Nokia phone, okay?
And it turns out that if anybody goes into the one, I think it's on 49th between 6th and
7th, okay?
When you walk through the door and the salesman immediately accost you, go up to the counter,
right?
Say you want service, okay?
Go through the process, and they'll pull out the Nokia for dealers-only handbook, okay?
They pull this out.
They pluck this down on the counter.
What you do is you just pocket that book and walk out of the dealership, and inside is
the full NAM code programming and ESN switching everything.
You left out the part about sending it in to 2600.
Actually, I have a copy of this, if you guys would like it.
We don't endorse people lifting things out of salesmen's hands?
No, no, of course not.
But actually, they were-
Dumpsters are good.
It looked like they were giving it to me, actually.
Yeah.
I assume they were giving it to me.
Okay, that's it.
Thanks for calling.
Thanks a lot.
You know, actually, I got some Omnipoint literature at the Third Avenue Fair, which took place this
past Sunday in New York City.
And, in fact, I was talking to a salesperson there.
You know, they all wear rollerblades.
I guess they really have to have a very, I don't know, aggressive sales policy.
But they were telling me about how they're expanding to places like Long Island and Jersey,
and how are they doing this?
I was wondering, how are they going to place, you know, transmitters every couple of feet,
which is what they seem to need to do?
They're going to use telephone poles.
Can you believe that?
They're going to actually use telephone poles with transmitters on those things.
And, now, isn't it true that every single instance of an antenna, there has to be a T1 going to it?
Well, no.
Every instance of a base station, there has to be a T1 going to it.
Right.
Right.
Well, okay, what's the difference between a base station and an antenna?
Well, the antenna is the actual thing that sends and receives the signals.
Right, but there's a base station where every antenna is, is there not?
Yeah, but most likely in, I could see a scenario where you could probably connect more than one antenna to a single base station.
Oh, really?
Because, yeah, the base station, the cabinets of the base station are rather large.
But a T1 is only about 23 lines, right?
Oh, 24.
24 lines.
Yeah.
Okay, so, I mean, I could see them needing that.
Yeah.
So, they're going to have to run a T1 to all these telephone poles.
I guess it's convenient, since they are telephone poles, but it's just...
Well, we shouldn't say a T1 is 24 lines.
T1 is 24 lines if we're going to say that we're going to use 24 DS0s.
Right.
The encoding scheme used by GSM has nothing to do with the phone company's DS0.
Right.
We just have to define it in some terms.
Right.
I think that's the closest we can do.
They could actually cram a lot more than 24.
But I was wondering, first of all, I'd love to know where all these transmitters are.
You know, I just wish there was a list out there that somebody had that, you know, had all these transmitter locations, at least in New York City.
That'd be kind of cool.
But the other thing, I was wondering, these T1s going to these transmitters.
Omnipoint is advertising how their conversations are encrypted, but what about the T1s?
Right.
Well, the conversations are encrypted in as much that they can't be lifted off the airwaves.
As far as in between the base unit and the switch over the T1s, I don't believe that they're encrypted.
So anybody who has one of these things in their apartment buildings, they could somehow figure out a way to tap in.
Perhaps.
Perhaps.
Imagine a police department that has a high roof saying, sure, we'll put some transmitters on there, and then they can just simply, you know, tap in at will, and nobody would be the wiser.
Unless you had a list of all the transmitters.
Okay, but unless Omnipoint went above and beyond the spec of GSM and did enact their own encryption between the base stations and the switches.
That's what we need to find out.
So what building are we going to climb later and tap in?
I'm sure we'll find some.
Okay, we'll figure this out.
We'll get some information.
Let's call that special 800 number that Rebel was so kind to bring down to the studio.
And he wanted you to hear this, Fiber.
Okay.
To explain it all.
Ready?
Okay.
Here we go.
The ARU ID is?
Echo.
Seven.
Alpha.
Your line number is?
Seven.
Call interactive number is?
Nine.
Nine.
Zero.
Zero.
Any number?
Two.
One.
Two.
Two.
Seven.
Nine.
Three.
Four.
Zero.
Nine.
I'm scared.
I feel like I just stumbled into NORAD or something.
What was that all about?
I admit that I'm not 100% certain.
They were using some acronyms in there that I have never heard.
All right.
Well, we're going to study this over the next week.
And we'll have an answer for you next week.
We will.
Definitely.
Thanks, Rebel.
Thanks.
We can only call 1-800 number a week.
You know that.
Now, next week, next week we'll do that.
Next week we'll do that.
I don't know what that number is.
We'll look into this.
Okay.
Let's take one more phone call.
Maybe two more.
We'll see what we can fit in.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes.
Go ahead.
This is Monty.
I received a call.
And I dialed, called back to find out who was calling me.
Uh-huh.
Star 69.
Right.
Star 69.
And I got all nines.
Got all nines.
Oh, you mean it announced what number it was going to call.
There you go.
And it said all nines.
All nines.
I don't know how they did that.
It should say that it's blocked and you can't call back.
I don't know.
Well, did you place the call and see where it went?
No, because once I had all nines, that blew my mind.
So I said, well, I'm not going to deal with that.
Well, the nine man is calling.
You should have called to see who it goes to.
I mean, maybe it'll go somewhere.
It probably won't go anywhere.
You're right.
But that is kind of weird.
Right.
All nines.
What part?
Are you in New York?
I'm in Manhattan.
Manhattan.
Well, I'd like to know if anyone else has gotten something like that.
Out where I am, you know, when you dial star 69, you still don't even get the number announcement.
It just rings the phone like it used to.
Yeah.
Well, sometimes, well, I have a way, as the operator will tell you, this was the number that dialed you just now.
And this time, it was all nines.
And I had counted them, and it's usually 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 numbers, and then, you know, the aerial code and what have you.
Right.
But this was all nines.
Was the aerial code all nines, too?
There you go.
Wow.
There you go.
Oh, that's something.
That's something.
Okay.
And I was wondering if anybody else had ever gotten that all night.
And then when I heard you say about the CIA and everybody, or the FBI, I said, well, maybe that was them checking to see, you know, if the rock was really here or what happened.
Has this happened before?
Yeah, it's happened more than once.
Well, no.
Only one time.
Only one time.
What time of day?
Was it middle of the day?
Yeah, it was about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Really?
That is something.
And it blew my mind.
I even told my wife.
I said, Mommy, I received a number, and I called her back.
It was all nines.
Oh, boy.
Well, it just goes to show that no matter how far technology advances, there's always room for some weird phone experiences.
Here you go.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
And we're out of time now.
So we'll be back again next week with all kinds of details as to what we learn in the weeks ahead.
There you go.
Okay.
Well, we'll be back again next week.
Emmanuel Goldstein for Fiber Optic.
Have yourselves a good week.
Good night.
Good night.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a cost.
It couldn't get much worse, but if it could, they would.
From Billy Bomber, the best expect from the world.
I hope that's understood.
From Billy Bomber.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Thank you.
From the streets of Algiers and Casablanca, rye has emerged as a major force in world music.
It made its way from the shores of the Mediterranean to the emigre quarters of Paris
and then into the hottest nightclubs in the City of Lights.
And now you'll be able to dance all night to its rhythms right here in New York City.
There'll be reggae too.
Thank you.