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The Doctor

@vfrmedia @skymtf @Em0nM4stodon Did yinz keep maps of pay phones and 1-800 bridges?

6 May 2023 at 20:36 | Wall-to-wall | Open on hackers.town
4 comments
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@drwho @skymtf @Em0nM4stodon In UK we'd sometimes memorise numbers of payphones near hangout spots (they usually accepted incoming calls), but mobile phone ownership was already fairly common for a young adult by early 90s (albeit with security concerns of analogue ETACS). There weren't any easy to access bridge circuits; British Telecom special service numbers (174/175 etc) were blocked from payphones (BT were quite clued up by the 90s on stopping anyone getting anything for free)

6 May 2023 at 20:41 | Open on social.tchncs.de
The Doctor

@vfrmedia @skymtf @Em0nM4stodon Mobiles were not common at all here until maybe 2005. Only reason I had one in 2k was for work because I was on call (and it was amazingly, stupidly expensive).

In the late 90's, it was not uncommon for USian companies to have conference lines through one of the big telcos; where I lived it was Hell Atlantic. The numbers were all over the place, and once you guessed an admin passcode you could set up your own conf on their account until they noticed. They more or less replaced red boxing, which had died by 1998 or so where I lived.

@vfrmedia @skymtf @Em0nM4stodon Mobiles were not common at all here until maybe 2005. Only reason I had one in 2k was for work because I was on call (and it was amazingly, stupidly expensive).

In the late 90's, it was not uncommon for USian companies to have conference lines through one of the big telcos; where I lived it was Hell Atlantic. The numbers were all over the place, and once you guessed an admin passcode you could set up your own conf on their account until they noticed. They more or less...

6 May 2023 at 21:08 | Open on hackers.town
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@drwho @skymtf @Em0nM4stodon by the mid-late 90s most young people already had GSM mobiles and telephone calls in Britain were dirt cheap or even free (most mobile plans gave free minutes) - whole subcultures such as the rave scene, pirate radio stations were built on this access to affordable and fairly secure comms (even before the Internet became widespread, which was only from late 90s/early 00s)

6 May 2023 at 21:12 | Open on social.tchncs.de
The Doctor

@vfrmedia @skymtf @Em0nM4stodon I can't even fathom what it would be like to live in a country with so reasonable a telecommunications system.

Where I lived in 412, the rave scene was pretty much built on e-mail (if one had access), hacked voice mail boxes, and phone trees. BBSes were a small part of that and faded out around the same time BBSes did.

6 May 2023 at 22:05 | Open on hackers.town
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