US Payphones wiki by payphones.telesfor.org

cards

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-08-24T04:30:30+00:00

Instruction cards Single slot phones, either WE or COCOT (except GTE 120B) share the same size instruction windows: top at 6.125“ x 1.925”, bottom 6.125“ x 2.65”. Actual instruction cards are typically slightly taller, i.e. 6⅛“ x 2⅛”

coin

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-03-16T19:00:00+00:00

Coin-line payphones (placeholder) Coin line phones were typically offered by the local telecommunication companies, and they required special line equipment at the Central Offices. These pages are still under construction and 3-slot pay phones will not be discussed here any time soon.

locks

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-09-20T23:32:30+00:00

Locks (placeholder) * Notes on Western Electric (Bell System) Coin Telephone Locks by Matt Blaze: * Medeco brochure: * Abloy “Classic” Cam Lock Picked and Gutted * How to Pick Any Medeco Lock - Redux

nanp

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2024-11-30T19:00:00+00:00

Numbering Plan and the rates North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean, within “1” Country Code. For more details you can refer to wikipedia articles:

pstn

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2024-11-30T19:00:00+00:00

Telephone lines This is a placeholder. Coin lines and B1 (analog / POTS) lines will be explained here, as well as how to emulate the B1 line, where to get a number, how to set up a dial plan etc. Basic terms POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) is a conventional analog signal transmission over physical copper wires (twisted pair). This technology originates from Alexander Graham Bell’s phone system, which dates back to 1876. It was the basic telephone call service that individuals and businesse…

repairs

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-07-29T11:48:30+00:00

Random repairs and remarks 1. Coin relay COCOT phones most of the times connect the coin relay with 3 wires: * red - green: normally open, closes when plastic flag is up (happens when a coin is deposited) * red - white: should always measure around 1 kOhm. Connected via the spring contacts to the coil, or - when the solenoid is engaged - to a 1k resistor.

sidebar

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-09-21T12:56:30+00:00

START Smart payphones (COCOT) * Elcotel * Programming * Documents & resources * Reverse engineering * Keypad mod for Olympian * Protel * Programming * Documents & resources * Nortel millennium * Programming * Documents & resources * Coin recalibration * Demo firmware wizard * Miscellaneous documents Coin line payphones * single-slot * 3-slot (placeholder) Instruction cards Telephone lines NANP and rates Locks

smart

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-12-17T04:31:53+00:00

Smart payphones Most of the “smart” payphones utilized either a Quadrum / “Sentinel” housing (shown in the drawing below - left side) or GTE 120B (mostly used by Frontier). They differed by the location of the coin return lever. Some “western

start

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-10-09T14:48:51+00:00

Intro The goal of these wiki pages is to gather and arrange knowledge related to payphones in the US back in a days, and how to bring them back to life. Knowledge database will be continuously updated, drawing from our own experiences, as well as insights from dedicated Facebook and Reddit groups focused on payphones. The primary issue we aim to address is the lack of a structured knowledge base. Existing websites are no longer kept up-to-date, and exploring information in social media groups c…