[comp.dcom.telecom] Theory and Operation of REMOBS

pa2437 <pa2437%sdcc13@ucsd.edu> (06/05/90)

This may have come up before but I missed it.  From a few different
people I have heard of the concept of a REMoteOBservation unit.

What it is:

Call your REMOB port. (TELCO EMPLOYEES ONLY) After tone enter your
Personal Identification Number.  Enter line you want to scan.  You
will passively be able to monitor the line you choose.  Well many
people have given me conflicting opinions on the existence of these
units. I have not heard if they were first used with the advent of ESS
or if they existed on CrossBar Switching systems.  

Could someone please enlighten me to the truth if these exist and if
so a little history on them.  I believe that they were not used to
monitor conversations but instead to check if a certain line was
operating.


Thank You,
PA@2437.UCSD.EDU

tad@beaver.cs.washington.edu> (06/07/90)

In article <8643@accuvax.nwu.edu>, pa2437%sdcc13@ucsd.edu (pa2437)
writes:

> Call your REMOB port. (TELCO EMPLOYEES ONLY) After tone enter your
> Personal Identification Number.

This code is not "personal" in the systems I saw, but just a 4-digit
DTMF sequence.

> Enter line you want to scan.  You will passively be able to 
> monitor the line you choose.

This depends on what it is connected to.  It may be connected to trunk
groups, and you can also set up the monitoring to begin only on
certain conditions, such as the first pair in a group to go off hook.

> Well many people have given me conflicting opinions on the existence
> of these units. I have not heard if they were first used with the 
> advent of ESS or if they existed on CrossBar Switching systems.  

The Teltone M240 units I encountered were connected to all kinds of
systems ... it had nothing to do with the switch type.  Some were in
COs, some in telco business offices, and some hooked to ACDs at
airlines.

> Could someone please enlighten me to the truth if these exist and if
> so a little history on them.  I believe that they were not used to
> monitor conversations but instead to check if a certain line was
> operating.

Some were used to monitor the "service" give by employees.  Telcos
used them at their business offices to make sure that they were giving
the customers the correct company image.

The Teltone units also could display dialed digits on the remote
observing consoles.  Some were set up so that only the first X-seconds
of a call were monitored.

There were some systems that were set up with greater security ...
when you dialed in you could not monitor ... all you did was give the
security code, which caused an internal dialer to dial back to a
hard-wired dedicated phone number where the person doing the
monitoring sat.  The person doing the security code and the person
doing the listening did not know each other, and may be in different
cities.


Tad Cook   Seattle, WA    Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA  Phone: 206/527-4089 
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