Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Alan MacHett" <machett AT ibiblio.org>]

...that's bricabrac for your phone system.  :D  Ha!

anywho...  Do we in the mundane world have the equivalent of 'traceroute'
for phone calls, be they line-originated or cell-originated??  I suppose I
/could/ contact BellSouth, et.al., but I can just imagine the hassle in
that (first the stonewalling, then the visits from Homeland Security, then
the vacation at Guantanimo).

This is purely a mental exercise for me.  I'm curious to know at what
distance (measured by infrastructure, not lateral increments) a
line-originated call is jumped to microwave or other "air" transmission. 
Conversely, is there any point at which a cell-originated call switches to
land lines (when not actually calling a land line number)?  And finally,
depending on the distance of the call and its originating demographics
(number of carriers in the area), how many different carriers'
infrastructures are being traversed?

yeah, I know, this is dorky even for geeks, but I'm really curious.

peace,
and happy weekend everybody!
Alan