Dial 9 to get out
Submitted by cldenton on Tue, 08/14/2007 - 12:11pm.
I am the VOIP Sysadmin for a mid-sized ISP in Los Angeles. We have been selling hosted asterisk-based pbx services as well as installing TrixBoxes at client sites for about the last year. One of the things that many of my clients see as a benefit to switching to either our hosted solution or their own TrixBox is the idea that they no longer have to dial 9 to get out. Since we have not ever had a client that felt the need for seven digit extensions (the most we have had is four digit), we've never run into any problems by not dialing 9 to get an outside line. I am setting up my first Pro box to test and I was going to put my office on it, but it sure seems like you cannot do "standard" seven, ten, or eleven digit dialing to call out. I found the setting where you can change the prefix, but that doesn't really do me any good. I don't want any prefix to get out. This isn't a major issue, and so far I am still planning on selling Pro from now on, but I can't understand why we can't dial out without a prefix....
Why "9" makes sense and how to get around it w/ Polycom
Tue, 08/14/2007 - 1:14pm
Hi there,
If you are using the Polycom phones that currently are in our "Certified Hardware" list (501, 601, 4000) your users will *not* have to dial either a "9" to get out or even a "1" if the phone is on-hook. They would just dial "310-555-1212" and then either pick up the handset or press "Dial" (to make it a speakerphone call).
Why is the "dial 9" still around after all these years?
Well, it enables you to create an automatic dial-plan that allows for quick 4-digit extension dialing. If you did not dial "9" (or some other key) to indicate you were making a toll call, then the system wouldn't know the difference between you dialing ext. 2125 and "212-555-1212". Therefore you wouldn't be able to quickly dial extensions with the phone off-hook (or even on-hook in the case of Aastra).
Try this with your Polycom. Pick up the handset and dial an extension. See how nicely it auto-sends? Then dial 9+1+number. See how nicely it autosends? That is the reason for a reserved key (such as "9") for dialing "out".
But can it be disabled
Thu, 08/16/2007 - 12:18pm
Some of us use trixbox in less commercial environments. I have a setup at a church, which is just the right size for trixbox Pro SE. Explaining to the dozens of people that find themselves there that they have to dial 9 seems a bit much. I understand it may delay the dial plan execution.
The Polycom phones don't
Mon, 08/27/2007 - 4:27pm
The Polycom phones don't care if a number matches part of the internal dial plan if the number is dialed when the phone is on-hook. This, coupled with entries in one of the Asterisk dial plans (internal-invisible.conf for those of you that are curious) allows the Polycom phones to be used to dial without a 9 being added on.
Dialplan Change To Dial w/o 9!
Tue, 11/20/2007 - 12:50pm
To all:
If you dial 10 plain digits matching:
NXXNXXXXXX
Where:
X = Any number
N = Any number but 0 or 1
Then the server will automatically try to prepend a 91 and dial. If this fails the server will try to prepend a 9 and dial. This means that with *any* phone you should be able to add the dial plan NXXNXXXXXX and dialout without prepending a 9 or 91.
I've tested this on my Polycom 501 on firmware version 1.6.6 and a tb Pro system. I'm confident it will work for other phones that have live dialing.
Instructions for doing this on 1.6.6:
1. Browse to your phones IP address
2. Click the "SIP" Link
3. Enter your username/password (defaults are "Polycom" and "456", respectively).
4. Add the entry: [2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxx to the Digitmap section at the bottom.
5. Restart the phone and use your sweet new dialplan!
I'm going to update the suggestions ticket Kerry referenced asking to include dial correction for local (7 digit) and other numbers (such as 1 + 10 digits, international).
Any questions? Send me a PM or update this thread.
Thanks,
David J Kullmann
tb Pro Support
Put Me on the List
Sun, 12/23/2007 - 9:23pm
I too am annoyed by the requirement of a prefix to dial out. Several of my smaller customers using older (and non-Pro) versions of trixbox prefer not to dial a prefix. Two of my customers are residential, but are telecommuters. They don't want to explain business-phone features to the babysitter or other houseguests.
Thanks,
-Mike
Sign me up too! it's really
Mon, 02/11/2008 - 6:08am
The simplest solution is to
Mon, 02/11/2008 - 8:08am
Polycom Digitmap
Fri, 02/22/2008 - 10:43am
You can modify the Polycom digitmap to remove and replace digits if needed.
The string RR9R1[2-9]xxxxxxxxx will add a 9 to 18585551212 when sent out in the INVITE.
R(remove)R(replace)R(end of string)
This does get tricky when doing 7 digits. That is why in a large deployment using 9 to dial out makes more sense because you can start your extensions with 1-8 and it has been around forever. It makes it easier for the end users when replacing a Nortel, Samsung, etc.
If using seven digit dialing you should make your extension numbers 10xx so that you can still do matching dial plans so the phone will send at the end of extensions and PSTN calls. Nobody should be dialing 1010xxx numbers on your system anyways, right?
There is a tech bulletin on this at the following link;
http://knowledgebase.polycom.com/kb/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docTy...
Chadwick -- I owe you....
Sun, 04/27/2008 - 8:33pm
Chadwick -- I owe you a cup of coffee, at least! I've been testing TrixBox 2.6.0.7 (updated to 2.6.1.0) with a couple of Polycom phones and couldn't understand for the life of me why my 9|. rule wasn't working. I was feeling more and more dense (not to mention defeated) until I came across your posting; now that I understand how the digitmap works, I can offer my client the choice to dial 9 or not.
Kind regards,
Steve
Add me to the Queue of wanting a configurable dial out number!
Thu, 05/01/2008 - 10:53am
Member Since:
2007-02-28