Outgoing calls with 0 as prefix

[davicval]

Hello,

 

In my company, we have the 0 prefix when we want to do outgoing calls. But we have one issue with history calls.

 

Indeed, history calls on the phone are not showing us numbers with 0 before so we can't use the recall function on our phones, we get a "Network Failure" error. We need to dial the number manually.

 

Can you help me finding the parameters to solve my problem.

 

 

Cheers,

David

[Vodia PBX]

Well this is a frequently asked question. Key problems are:

• How do you dial 911? 0-911? 9-911? What if you panic and dial 9-11, will it end up at 11? IMHO unacceptable.
• If you received a call from lets say 617-399-8147, do you need to edit the number before you can call back?
• Which number do you store in your address book? 06173998147?
• How do you dial an international number? 00118612345678? Or 0118612345678?

IMHO this feature is a relic from analog days that is causing more trouble today that it makes life easier. Choosing 9 as a prefix does not make things easier, especially dialing 911.

 

Our recommendation is to dial numbers as they are. This has worked very well for the cell phones, and today 99.99 % of the users understand that they should dial numbers just like on their mobile phones, without the need of cryptic prefixes.

[davicval]

I understand what you are saying but imagine you have 2 different trunks SIP for one domain and there is one dedicated to cell phones and the other to do everything else. You want to have 2 different dial plans so you use a prefix to call cell phones and another one (or not) to call the other numbers. I don't think there is a better way to differentiate 2 lines, am I right?

 

In my case, I have to dial 0 for outgoing calls. But if I receive a call, the number is in the historical of my phone so I just want to call using this feature. As I said, it's here I got the "Network Failure" error.

[Vodia PBX]

So you mean you want to leave the decision what trunk to use to the user (at the end of the day)? Are we talking about a few phones which could be handled as exceptions in the dial plan or a lot of them?

 

For cell phones, depending on where you are on this planet, this may be possible in the dial plan (e.g. Germany) or not (e.g. USA). Usually the predictability has to do with the prices for call, e.g. in the US the caller does not have to pay extra for calling a cell phone number and there is no way to see before hand if this would be a call to a cell phone.

[davicval]

Hello,

 

I tried to find something to fix my issue but I can't see where the parameter could be.

 

So again my question is: Is there a way I can tell to the PBX to do 0 automatically for outgoing calls so I can use my recall function properly?

 

At this point, I need to look at my call history, to memorize the number which called me and to dial it using a 0 prefix. I just want to use call numbers using this history but with a 0 prefix giving by the PBX automatically.

[Vodia PBX]

If you want to use prefixes, it is important that you do not use a country code in the domain. The country code tells the PBX how to interpret numbers (this is done pretty much like your cell phone would read a number in the region). If you want to put prefixes there to imitate the good-old line-seize behavior when every digit was sent to the PBX, then numbers starting with a zero will obviously confuse the PBX.

[davicval]

I'm sorry, I don't understand everything. I'm not using a country code. For example, I'm in France so the country code is 0033. I'm just using 0 to do outgoing calls and it works. When I dial manually the number (006485782 to call the real number 06485782).

 

So I can't see where could be the issue to do it using the call history function unless the PBX does not manage that option.

[Vodia PBX]

In France the country code would be 33, not 0033 (at least that is what you would put into the domain setting).

 

The problem with the call history is when the call comes in, you show the number without the prefix. Lets say you are in France and receive a call from Germany. The number you would see would be for example 0049301234567. Then when you call back, the PBX would see the first 0 and say "aha, that is a outbound call" and then dial 049301234567 which would be some number in France.

 

The PBX does not put anything into the call history to add a prefix. I know this would be a solution so that customers can call back numbers in case that they have missed a call. I have seen (other vendors) PBX system that do that, but at the end of the day the users were penciling down the numbers and then entering them again with/out the prefix. And they were not happy with their phone system, understandably.