asterisk users - Apr 2016 - "Follow me" with Asterisk that detects cellphone voicemail and similar announcements

Hi all,

sorry if the subject is a bit confusing, but I just couldn?t think of a good way
of better describing the situation?

Basically, I travel a lot and have several SIM cards for my phone from local
carriers. What I?d like to do now is to setup Asterisk, so that people who want
to reach me just have to dial one number which forwards the call to all my
cellphone numbers in turn. I?m still pretty new to Asterisk, so I?m unsure which
method would be most suitable for this scenario.

Theoretically, I could use the dial function to call one number, then wait a few
seconds and then dial another number. In practice, this won?t work because as
soon as a call is answered by the mobile carrier?s voicemail the caller would be
connected to that, no other numbers would be called.
So here?s my question: how can I possibly avoid this situation? Is there a way
for Asterisk to detect such situations and distinguish them from me actually
trying to answer the call when the correct number is called?
Not sure if this is technically possible, but figured I?d ask just in case there
is any sort of solution. I?m aware that it would be best to simply use SIP and a
SIP client on my phone in order to take the call, but due to most carriers
blocking SIP traffic on their mobile data networks this wouldn?t work as soon as
I?m not connected to any WiFi.
So, in case there?s any solution to this problem I?d greatly appreciate if you
could share that with me!
Many thanks and best wishes,
Robin

I know if you use freepbx on top of asterisk, you get a followme which
calls one or more cell phones and ask for confirmation, maybe the
regular asterisk followme does this as well, but basically this is the
way to do it.

Robin Kipp <mlists at robin-kipp.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> sorry if the subject is a bit confusing, but I just couldn?t think of a
good way of better describing the situation?
> 
> Basically, I travel a lot and have several SIM cards for my phone from
local carriers. What I?d like to do now is to setup Asterisk, so that people who
want to reach me just have to dial one number which forwards the call to all my
cellphone numbers in turn. I?m still pretty new to Asterisk, so I?m unsure which
method would be most suitable for this scenario.
> 
> Theoretically, I could use the dial function to call one number, then wait
a few seconds and then dial another number. In practice, this won?t work because
as soon as a call is answered by the mobile carrier?s voicemail the caller would
be connected to that, no other numbers would be called.
> So here?s my question: how can I possibly avoid this situation? Is there a
way for Asterisk to detect such situations and distinguish them from me actually
trying to answer the call when the correct number is called?
> Not sure if this is technically possible, but figured I?d ask just in case
there is any sort of solution. I?m aware that it would be best to simply use SIP
and a SIP client on my phone in order to take the call, but due to most carriers
blocking SIP traffic on their mobile data networks this wouldn?t work as soon as
I?m not connected to any WiFi.
> So, in case there?s any solution to this problem I?d greatly appreciate if
you could share that with me!
> Many thanks and best wishes,
> Robin
> -- 
> _____________________________________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
>                http://www.asterisk.org/hello
> 
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> 
-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici at ccs.covici.com

Just a few ideas...


1. Disable all mobile carrier's voicemail and configure a voicemail on
your Asterisk. Let Asterisk handle the unanswered calls.

2. If your SIP provider allows multiple calls at the same time,
configure Asterisk to call all your SIMs at once (instead of calling the
first, wait... calling the second... wait and so on).

3. If your mobile carrier blocks SIP on your data plan, simply configure
Asterisk <-> SIP client on your mobile phone to use another port. 
Or, even better, you can use IAX instead of SIP. On your mobile device
install a client that supports IAX (for example, Zoiper).


Frank

> Theoretically, I could use the dial function to call one number, then
> wait a few seconds and then dial another number. In practice, this
> won?t work because as soon as a call is answered by the mobile
> carrier?s voicemail the caller would be connected to that, no other
> numbers would be called.
I never understood why people have voicemails.  Switch off the voicemail 
feature, so it won't pick up the call.

My solution to this problem is rather manual.  I travel across countries 
as well, so here is what I have:

[...]
exten => dialme,n,Macro(get_mobile_target)
exten => dialme,n,Dial(SIP/${TARGET_PROVIDER}/${TARGET_NUMBER},35,t)
[...]

Now, as you can see, the above uses a macro to set some variables, so 
let's look at it:

Apart from many logging and other, non-relevant features, it calls an 
AGI:

exten => s,n,Agi(get_mobile_target.agi)

What this AGI does, it looks up in an SQL table which provider and which 
destination number to call at any given time.  These can change 
dynamically as I travel around, hence it's in SQL.  How will values be 
updated in SQL?  By two ways.

1) I have a web frontend where I can logon and select from a dropdown 
menu, which simcard is my current cellphone number.  If I want, I can 
also select a provider from a dropdown list, as I have more and there 
are different deals with each.  So I won't be calling my US cellphone 
number from a provider that provides me good EU rates and only those.

Usually I use airport wifi or 3G/4G at the departing airport to select 
the cell number from the list.

2) I have DID number which I can call from whichever cellphone I'm 
currently using, where the call is handled by an AGI on the PBX.  If the 
callerID matches one from a pre-defined list (my known sim card 
numbers), it assumes that I'm checking in and the caller ID gets 
selected the same way as if I was making the selection from the web 
interface.  This call costs nothing as the call is never answered, the 
AGI hungs up the call.

I understand that both are rather manual and not exactly textbook 
follow-me but they are pretty simple and it works well for me.

regards
Adam

On Thursday 28 Apr 2016, Robin Kipp wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> sorry if the subject is a bit confusing, but I just couldn?t think of a
> good way of better describing the situation?
> 
> Basically, I travel a lot and have several SIM cards for my phone from
> local carriers. What I?d like to do now is to setup Asterisk, so that
> people who want to reach me just have to dial one number which forwards
> the call to all my cellphone numbers in turn. I?m still pretty new to
> Asterisk, so I?m unsure which method would be most suitable for this
> scenario.
> 
> Theoretically, I could use the dial function to call one number, then wait
> a few seconds and then dial another number. In practice, this won?t work
> because as soon as a call is answered by the mobile carrier?s voicemail
> the caller would be connected to that, no other numbers would be called.
> So here?s my question: how can I possibly avoid this situation? Is there a
> way for Asterisk to detect such situations and distinguish them from me
> actually trying to answer the call when the correct number is called? Not
> sure if this is technically possible, but figured I?d ask just in case
> there is any sort of solution. I?m aware that it would be best to simply
> use SIP and a SIP client on my phone in order to take the call, but due to
> most carriers blocking SIP traffic on their mobile data networks this
> wouldn?t work as soon as I?m not connected to any WiFi. So, in case
> there?s any solution to this problem I?d greatly appreciate if you could
> share that with me! Many thanks and best wishes,
> Robin
There is no reliable way to distinguish whether a phone was answered by a 
human being or a machine.  

If you can't just disable voicemail on all your SIMs then you will need to
find
out how long each carrier will wait before diverting to voicemail, and then 
make sure the timeouts in your Dial() statements are short enough not to 
trigger the carrier's voicemail.  Then use Asterisk's VoiceMail()
application
to record any message your caller might leave.

You can just chain a whole bunch of Dial() statements one after another within 
an extension because once the first one has been answered, execution will 
proceed to the "h" extension.

If you install ConnectBot on your mobile phone, you should be able to login to 
your Asterisk server each time you swap in a new SIM card, and edit your 
dialplan so the phone you are using today gets tried first.  This could even be 
automated, but talk of such may not be appropriate for a non-commercial list.

Out of politeness to the caller, play them a recorded announcement before your 
bank of Dial() statements, so they know to wait while your Asterisk box 
searches for you.

Finally, remember:  You will be tying up two channels -- and therefore maybe 
two DAHDI spans, depending how the calls are coming into and out of your 
Asterisk box -- with this.  

-- 
AJS

Note:  Originating address only accepts e-mail from list!  If replying off-
list, change address to asterisk1list at earthshod dot co dot uk .
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Followme can be configured to accept a keypress to accept or decline the
call. Put something like this in followme.conf:


[general]
featuredigittimeout=>5000
takecall=>1
declinecall=>2
call_from_prompt=>followme/call-from
norecording_prompt=>followme/no-recording
options_prompt=>followme/options
pls_hold_prompt=>followme/pls-hold-while-try
status_prompt=>followme/status
sorry_prompt=>followme/sorry

On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 8:46 AM, A J Stiles <asterisk_list at
earthshod.co.uk>
wrote:
> On Thursday 28 Apr 2016, Robin Kipp wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
>
> >
>
> > sorry if the subject is a bit confusing, but I just couldn?t think of
a
>
> > good way of better describing the situation?
>
> >
>
> > Basically, I travel a lot and have several SIM cards for my phone from
>
> > local carriers. What I?d like to do now is to setup Asterisk, so that
>
> > people who want to reach me just have to dial one number which
forwards
>
> > the call to all my cellphone numbers in turn. I?m still pretty new to
>
> > Asterisk, so I?m unsure which method would be most suitable for this
>
> > scenario.
>
> >
>
> > Theoretically, I could use the dial function to call one number, then
> wait
>
> > a few seconds and then dial another number. In practice, this won?t
work
>
> > because as soon as a call is answered by the mobile carrier?s
voicemail
>
> > the caller would be connected to that, no other numbers would be
called.
>
> > So here?s my question: how can I possibly avoid this situation? Is
there
> a
>
> > way for Asterisk to detect such situations and distinguish them from
me
>
> > actually trying to answer the call when the correct number is called?
Not
>
> > sure if this is technically possible, but figured I?d ask just in case
>
> > there is any sort of solution. I?m aware that it would be best to
simply
>
> > use SIP and a SIP client on my phone in order to take the call, but
due
> to
>
> > most carriers blocking SIP traffic on their mobile data networks this
>
> > wouldn?t work as soon as I?m not connected to any WiFi. So, in case
>
> > there?s any solution to this problem I?d greatly appreciate if you
could
>
> > share that with me! Many thanks and best wishes,
>
> > Robin
>
>
>
> There is no reliable way to distinguish whether a phone was answered by a
> human being or a machine.
>
>
>
> If you can't just disable voicemail on all your SIMs then you will need
to
> find out how long each carrier will wait before diverting to voicemail, and
> then make sure the timeouts in your Dial() statements are short enough not
> to trigger the carrier's voicemail. Then use Asterisk's VoiceMail()
> application to record any message your caller might leave.
>
>
>
> You can just chain a whole bunch of Dial() statements one after another
> within an extension because once the first one has been answered, execution
> will proceed to the "h" extension.
>
>
>
> If you install ConnectBot on your mobile phone, you should be able to
> login to your Asterisk server each time you swap in a new SIM card, and
> edit your dialplan so the phone you are using today gets tried first. This
> could even be automated, but talk of such may not be appropriate for a
> non-commercial list.
>
>
>
> Out of politeness to the caller, play them a recorded announcement before
> your bank of Dial() statements, so they know to wait while your Asterisk
> box searches for you.
>
>
>
> Finally, remember: You will be tying up two channels -- and therefore
> maybe two DAHDI spans, depending how the calls are coming into and out of
> your Asterisk box -- with this.
>
>
>
> --
>
> AJS
>
>
>
> Note: Originating address only accepts e-mail from list! If replying
> off-list, change address to asterisk1list at earthshod dot co dot uk .
>
> --
> _____________________________________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
>                http://www.asterisk.org/hello
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
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On 29/04/2016, at 3:46 am, A J Stiles <asterisk_list at earthshod.co.uk>
wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> There is no reliable way to distinguish whether a phone was answered by a
human being or a machine.
>  
> If you can't just disable voicemail on all your SIMs then you will need
to find out how long each carrier will wait before diverting to voicemail, and
then make sure the timeouts in your Dial() statements are short enough not to
trigger the carrier's voicemail.  Then use Asterisk's VoiceMail()
application to record any message your caller might leave.
> 
> <snip>

To make things worse, in the country I reside not one of the cellular telcos
have the option of disabling voicemail! If you disable voicemail they still
terminate the call and instead play a message to the effect of 'This user
has disabled voicemail. Goodbye'.

We also can't rely on timeouts because if the destination cellphone is out
of coverage or turned off then the telco will drop to VM (or no-VM warning)
almost immediately.

Unfortunately for us, the only option is to code up a routine that checks for
acceptance confirmation from the destination human, a-la what John was
describing in FreePBX.

Pete

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