asterisk users - Oct 2005 - call to a particular 800 number never shows answered on Zap channel

Whenever we call IBM, the call counter on the phone never starts and in
the CLI the zap channel never gets the answered signal from the PRI.
See below.

    -- Executing Dial("SIP/5933-645d", "Zap/g1/18004267378")
in new
stack
    -- Requested transfer capability: 0x00 - SPEECH
    -- Called g1/18004267378

At this point, I am in IBM's menu system.  However the call never
indicates that it is answered either on the phone or in the CLI.  After
60 seconds, the call disconnects.  

    -- Hungup 'Zap/1-1'
  == Spawn extension (main, 18004267378, 1) exited non-zero on
'SIP/5933-7bff'
    -- Executing Hangup("SIP/5933-7bff", "") in new stack
  == Spawn extension (main, h, 1) exited non-zero on 'SIP/5933-7bff'

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Andy

--
H. Andy Goss
Network Engineer
Network Advocates Inc.
Main: 502.412.1050
DID: 502.992.5933
Mobile: 502.387.8216
agoss@ntad.com

This one drove me crazy for a while too.  I found out that some 
companies don't exactly play fair and don't pass answer supervision on a
call until you are actually speaking with a live person.  The person I 
spoke to about this wasn't sure if that was even legal, but he said it 
happens quite a bit.  I was lucky in that I use multiple carriers 
(voipjet and broadvoice), voipjet disconnected the call after 60 
seconds, but broadvoice did not, so when I find one of those 800 numbers 
I route it through broadvoice.

Hope that helps,

G

Andy Goss wrote:
> Whenever we call IBM, the call counter on the phone never starts and in
> the CLI the zap channel never gets the answered signal from the PRI.
> See below.
> 
>     -- Executing Dial("SIP/5933-645d",
"Zap/g1/18004267378") in new
> stack
>     -- Requested transfer capability: 0x00 - SPEECH
>     -- Called g1/18004267378
> 
> At this point, I am in IBM's menu system.  However the call never
> indicates that it is answered either on the phone or in the CLI.  After
> 60 seconds, the call disconnects.  
> 
>     -- Hungup 'Zap/1-1'
>   == Spawn extension (main, 18004267378, 1) exited non-zero on
> 'SIP/5933-7bff'
>     -- Executing Hangup("SIP/5933-7bff", "") in new
stack
>   == Spawn extension (main, h, 1) exited non-zero on
'SIP/5933-7bff'
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas?
> 
> Thanks,
> Andy
> 
> --
> H. Andy Goss
> Network Engineer
> Network Advocates Inc.
> Main: 502.412.1050
> DID: 502.992.5933
> Mobile: 502.387.8216
> agoss@ntad.com
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> Whenever we call IBM, the call counter on the phone never starts and in
> the CLI the zap channel never gets the answered signal from the PRI.
First, there is nothing "unfair" or "illegal" going on. 
Large toll-free
users have enough clout that they can negotiate contracts, where they
are not billed during the service selection phase of a call.  For example,
when you call American Airlines, billing doesn't start until an agent
answers, or the caller selects "automated flight information" or a
similar
IVR service.  Answer supervision is used to tell the carrier when to start
billing.  This system is quite common and used by hundreds of companies.

With Asterisk, three things might go wrong:

You may hear ringing instead of the initial IVR greeting.  If your carrier
is sending 180 Ringing instead of 183 Progress (SIP) or Alerting without
inband audio (PRI), then they must fix the problem; nothing can be done at
your end.

You may hear the IVR answer, but can't control it, because your outbound
DTMF or voice is blocked.  Your carrier might be doing the blocking, in
which case they obviously must fix it.  However, there are also some SIP
phones and ATAs that don't send outgoing audio during Progress.  If you
have such, adjust the configuration if possible.  If not, you will need
to disable reinvites.

You may have two-way communication with the IVR, but the call gets
disconnected before answer supervision is received.   Find out if it's
your carrier or Asterisk that is timing out.  If the latter, just put
a longer timeout in your Dial statement; 180 seconds should be enough.

--Stewart