If VoIP kills phreaking, who are tomorrow's engineers?

From Phreaking to Innovation: The Engineers Who Hacked the World

“Ma Bell is a system I want to explore. It’s a beautiful system, you know, but Ma Bell screwed up.” Those words, plucked from an article Steve Wozniak describes as “the one that changed history,” capture the curiosity and ingenuity of one of the world’s greatest engineers. Like countless others, Wozniak’s fascination with computer systems grew out of a teenage obsession: exploring the vulnerabilities of the telephone network.

The telephone system, for decades, was a treasure trove for budding tinkerers for two simple reasons. First, its vulnerabilities were relatively well-documented (though hardly advertised). Second, telephony was painfully expensive, so figuring out how to game the system wasn’t just a learning experience—it saved money. But here’s the question: now that global communication is so cheap, does anyone still care enough to poke around?

Take a look at the numbers. BT users still pay 18.5p per minute to call France, or a staggering 31p to chat with friends in New Zealand. But what if those calls cost a penny per minute to France, or 1.4p to New Zealand? For users of services like Localphone, that’s already a reality. With prices this low, where’s the incentive to hack the system? Does this mean the end of the curious young Wozniaks of the world—those who might otherwise channel their rebellious curiosity into groundbreaking innovation?

Phreaking 101

The first "phreaks"—those who explored and exploited the telephone system—often stumbled upon their skills by accident. Josef Carl Engressia, a blind eight-year-old, discovered he could stop a phone from billing a call simply by whistling a 2600Hz tone. That frequency, unbeknownst to him, signalled the phone system that the call had ended. Engressia’s discovery became the foundation of phone "phreaking" and inspired a generation of hackers and engineers.

Later phreaks, like Steve Wozniak, approached the challenge with methodical precision. Phreaking became an engineering exercise, a way to master systems and understand their inner workings. As Wozniak himself said, “The blue box year was 1972. Apple started in 1975. The biggest connection was some design tricks and techniques that I honed on the blue box.” His experiments with the telephone system laid the groundwork for Apple’s early innovations. The curiosity that drove him to tinker with Ma Bell ultimately helped him build something far greater.

A New Era of Telecoms

The telephone system served as a proving ground for countless engineers, providing both the challenge and the motivation to push boundaries. Even today, its legacy lives on: the frequency 2600Hz may no longer fool a modern exchange, but it remains an icon, lending its name to the influential 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. The journal is a bible for security enthusiasts, publishing vulnerabilities to promote stronger systems and greater transparency. Without phreaking, would we have such openness in the field of information security?

But what about today? When calling halfway across the world is cheaper than your morning coffee, does the telephone system still hold the same allure? Services like Localphone make international calls so affordable that there’s little point in “borrowing” them. Yet, the fascination with these sprawling networks hasn’t entirely vanished—it’s just changed form.

Legal Hacking for a New Generation

Thankfully, modern engineers can explore telecom systems without resorting to piracy. Tools like Asterisk—a free, open-source PBX—make it possible to experiment with telephone networks legally and safely. And while VoIP networks have long operated as isolated silos, the landscape is shifting. Early pioneers like the FWD system allowed free calls within their network but couldn’t bridge into traditional telephone systems. Today, services like Localphone have made that connection seamless and cheap, offering the best of both worlds.

In a way, the same forces that drove early phreaks to tinker with the system—curiosity, creativity, and the desire to make something better—are still at play. Cheaper telecoms remain a powerful motivator, and with today’s tools, aspiring engineers can dive into these systems without breaking the law.

So here’s to the next generation of tinkerers and dreamers. They may not be chasing free calls, but they’ll find new ways to explore, innovate, and build something extraordinary.

Disclaimer: the author worked as an engineer at Localphone when this article was written in October 2007.