[VoIP] Wikipedia entry on Phreaking, the section about Wawina

[Jayson Smith]

    Hi,
I have no idea who wrote this, but in case you haven't seen it, here's the
section of the "Phreaking" entry at Wikipedia concerning Wawina.  I have to
say, they got it mostly right, although I certainly am not one of the
'famous' phone phreaks.  I guess you could say I'm a phreak, except that I
never did play around with MF back in the day, etc.  Anyway here goes, and
hope you enjoy it!
Jayson.

The End of MF

The end of MF phreaking in the lower 48 United States occurred on June 15,
2006.
The last exchange in the continental United States to use a "phreakable"
MF-signalled trunk replaced the aging (yet still well kept) N2 carrier with
a T-1
carrier. This exchange was located in Wawina, MN, (218)-488. This particular
exchange was run by the
Northern Telephone Company of Minnesota.
The days building up to the cutover were comparatively eventful, as many
phone phreaks from across North America and the world made calls into what
was
the last group of MF-able inward trunks in the continental United States. A
message board was set up on +1 (218) 488-1307, for phone phreaks across the
world to "say their goodbyes" to MF signalling and the N2 in Wawina. During
the days prior to the cutover, many famous phone phreaks such as
Mark Bernay,
Joybubbles,
Bob Bernay,
and
Captain Crunch
could be heard leaving their comments on the message board. The official
date for the cutover from N2 to
T-carrier
was Wednesday, June 14. As early as June 7, there was a noticeable static on
what had previously been clear lines. By Monday, June 12, many numbers were
unreachable, and the static had peaked. The recording on +1 (218) 488-1307
was generally inaccessible, and MFing through the switch was becoming
increasingly
more difficult due to the increased static. By the 15th, the end had come.

The cutover occurred around 1:38, Eastern Daylight Time. The Wawina
switchmen had disallowed any more incoming calls to the N2 system, however,
a few phreaks
were still on the lines. The last two phone phreaks to sit on a
telephone-company-operated MF trunk in the continental United States were
Lucky225
and Josh from Pittsburgh. Lucky and Josh were idling in a conference, from
the N2 side. A few phone phreaks were sitting on the same conference, but
coming
in through the T-carrier or the
Collector's Network.
Later on, another phone phreak, Jayson Smith, pulsed 2600 through the
Collector's Network (which does not respond to 2600 Hz or MF tones). That
indicated
to all parties on the N2 that the called party had hung up, which in turn
winked off Lucky and Josh's last remaining trunks, and ended the last two
inbound
calls ever made on the Wawina N2. Shane, the switchman running the
operation, then placed a ceremonial "last call" from the
central office,
and shut down the system for good.