Letters: Q&A

Dear 2600: How does the operator find out if you are calling from a fone booth or a house fone?  Is there any way to defeat this?       California A payphone is wired up directly to the Traffic Service Position System (TSPS), basically the operator at a switchboard) circuit.  A light on the console flashes and shows the caller to be at a payphone.  To convince the TSPS that it wasn't actually a payphone, you would have to go into the switch room and rewire it.  The distinction is not made within the phone itself, but in the central office.  You receive a dial tone through the TSPS circuit before it goes to the central office - it's connected in series with it.  Everything you do goes through the TSPS circuit, whether it's local or not.  In short, there's no way around it.