Hello! We are located in the UK, and we are planning to replace our old pbx with an asterisk based pbx. For outgoing calls our present pbx is connected to three PSTN lines which all have the same number. Internally, the pbx caters for quite a few extensions, and each extension can make outbound phone calls. Our telecom provider (your communications) gives us monthly itemized bills that list all of the calls per extension, i.e. from the bill we are able to tell which internal extension made what call to which destination at which date/time, how long this call was in minutes and how much that particular call costs. We would like to reuse the three PSTN lines with the asterisk system, and at present there are no plans to utilize other connectiviy (such as ISDN) - we would like to stick with the three PSTN lines. My understanding is that when the asterisk system is running we won't get any itemized bills any more since the telecom provider has no way of telling from which extension a call originated. Questions: To give the extension information to the telco... How can I configure Asterisk to do send extension information? What signalling do I have to provide for outgoing calls to give extension information the telco? Is there a standard for sending extension numbers (i.e. do I have to send some DTMF digits)? Is there a software / asterisk extension (that works in the UK) that allows asterisk to send extension info? Do I need to buy some equipment that can provide this info to the telco? Which? Where could I find more information on that subject? Thank you very much for your consideration.
Hi Peter You need to first of all ask your Telco what mechanism it uses with your current switch. The most likely ways are 1) Two stage dialling. 1xxx pause <PIN> <exten> <dialled number> 2) access code 1xxx <exten> <dialled number> You need to get the specs for this from Your Communications. It is not clear from the web site... Asterisk will cope perfectly with either solution - you will just need to fiddle a bit with the dial plan. Once we know what you have to send to the telco there are tons of people here who will advise on the Dial command you should use to achieve what you want. Rgds Tim Robinson Ps. Any reason why you chose to stick with the analogue solution? Is this just risk mitigation in the early stages? (this is a valid reason, btw!) -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Peter Hoppe Sent: 25 November 2004 10:54 To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Billing (itemized) in the UK Hello! We are located in the UK, and we are planning to replace our old pbx with an asterisk based pbx. For outgoing calls our present pbx is connected to three PSTN lines which all have the same number. Internally, the pbx caters for quite a few extensions, and each extension can make outbound phone calls. Our telecom provider (your communications) gives us monthly itemized bills that list all of the calls per extension, i.e. from the bill we are able to tell which internal extension made what call to which destination at which date/time, how long this call was in minutes and how much that particular call costs. We would like to reuse the three PSTN lines with the asterisk system, and at present there are no plans to utilize other connectiviy (such as ISDN) - we would like to stick with the three PSTN lines. My understanding is that when the asterisk system is running we won't get any itemized bills any more since the telecom provider has no way of telling from which extension a call originated. Questions: To give the extension information to the telco... How can I configure Asterisk to do send extension information? What signalling do I have to provide for outgoing calls to give extension information the telco? Is there a standard for sending extension numbers (i.e. do I have to send some DTMF digits)? Is there a software / asterisk extension (that works in the UK) that allows asterisk to send extension info? Do I need to buy some equipment that can provide this info to the telco? Which? Where could I find more information on that subject? Thank you very much for your consideration. _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>To give the extension information to the telco... > >How can I configure Asterisk to do send extension information? >[Senad Jordanovic] This greatly depends on your provider...>What signalling do I have to provide for outgoing calls to giveextension>information the telco? >[Senad Jordanovic] What PBX are you using currently?>Is there a standard for sending extension numbers (i.e. do I have tosend>some DTMF digits)? >[Senad Jordanovic] On POTS lines no. On BRI/PRI yes...> >Where could I find more information on that subject? >[Senad Jordanovic] Try http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Asterisk Senad Jordanovic Bicom Systems, The complete systems provider www.bicomsystems.com USA 1-212-400-7921 UK 0870 682 782
Thank you very much for the answer! I think it is a good path to look at. I have
had a look through
our paperwork for the present pbx, and I found one document that seemed to
indicate we have to dial
1666<extn><dialled_number>
to give the extn info to the telco. The paper is a bit old (1999) and since then
we have changed our
telco, but I guess that this protocol is still valid. This afternoon I will hook
up a recording
device on the line and see which digits are actually dialled when I dial an
outside line. From the
recording I should be able to reconstruct which digits have actually been
dialled by the pbx.
If the protocol is correct, I could construct a dial command such as
exten => _9.,1,Dial(Zap/g1/1666<ID>${EXTEN:1})
or so - I would just need a way to construct <id> - and then any caller
from an inside device would
just prepend a '9' before the real number. I probably would also bar
simple '9' dialling to get an
outside line... lets see.
Keep you posted, and so many thanks for all the help!
P
> Hi Peter
> You need to first of all ask your Telco what mechanism it uses with your
> current switch. The most likely ways are
>
> 1) Two stage dialling. 1xxx pause <PIN> <exten> <dialled
number>
> 2) access code 1xxx <exten> <dialled number>
>
> You need to get the specs for this from Your Communications. It is not
> clear from the web site...
>
> Asterisk will cope perfectly with either solution - you will just need
> to fiddle a bit with the dial plan. Once we know what you have to send
> to the telco there are tons of people here who will advise on the Dial
> command you should use to achieve what you want.
>
> Rgds
> Tim Robinson
> Ps. Any reason why you chose to stick with the analogue solution? Is
> this just risk mitigation in the early stages? (this is a valid reason,
> btw!)
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Peter
> Hoppe
> Sent: 25 November 2004 10:54
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Billing (itemized) in the UK
>
>
> Hello!
>
> We are located in the UK, and we are planning to replace our old pbx
> with an asterisk based pbx. For
> outgoing calls our present pbx is connected to three PSTN lines which
> all have the same number.
> Internally, the pbx caters for quite a few extensions, and each
> extension can make outbound phone calls.
>
> Our telecom provider (your communications) gives us monthly itemized
> bills that list all of the
> calls per extension, i.e. from the bill we are able to tell which
> internal extension made what call
> to which destination at which date/time, how long this call was in
> minutes and how much that
> particular call costs.
>
> We would like to reuse the three PSTN lines with the asterisk system,
> and at present there are no
> plans to utilize other connectiviy (such as ISDN) - we would like to
> stick with the three PSTN lines.
>
> My understanding is that when the asterisk system is running we won't
> get any itemized bills any
> more since the telecom provider has no way of telling from which
> extension a call originated.
>
>
> Questions:
>
> To give the extension information to the telco...
>
> How can I configure Asterisk to do send extension information?
>
> What signalling do I have to provide for outgoing calls to give
> extension information the telco?
>
> Is there a standard for sending extension numbers (i.e. do I have to
> send some DTMF digits)?
>
> Is there a software / asterisk extension (that works in the UK) that
> allows asterisk to send
> extension info?
>
> Do I need to buy some equipment that can provide this info to the telco?
> Which?
>
> Where could I find more information on that subject?
>
>
>
> Thank you very much for your consideration.
You just need to do something like
exten => _9.,1,Dial(Zap/g1/1666$CALLERIDNUM${EXTEN:1})
You can also do some useful translations like
exten => _9[2-8]XXXXXX,1,Dial(Zap/g1/1666$CALLERIDNUM0113${EXTEN:1})
This will look for 9, then a local number beginning 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 , and
dial out the extension number, followed by the 0113 area code.
You will need to make sure that 999 and 112 go direct to BT by using
another line in the extensions file. E.g.
exten => 9999,1,Dial(Zap/g1/999)
exten => 9112,1,Dial(Zap/g1/112)
And probably
exten => 999,1,Dial(Zap/g1/999)
Just to be on the safe side!
You could also write a little macro to kick another user off their call
to allow the emergency call to get priority.
There is just so much cool stuff you can do. But do test well!
Rgds
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Peter
Hoppe
Sent: 25 November 2004 13:34
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Billing (itemized) in the UK
If the protocol is correct, I could construct a dial command such as
exten => _9.,1,Dial(Zap/g1/1666<ID>${EXTEN:1})
or so - I would just need a way to construct <id> - and then any caller
from an inside device would
just prepend a '9' before the real number. I probably would also bar
simple '9' dialling to get an
outside line... lets see.