Call waiting - ATA support?

[VANJ]

I have my Obi100 setup to use Callcentric as SP1  for inbound calls and Callwithus as SP2 for outbound calls.

When an inbound call is active and I get another inbound call, Callcentric's call waiting feature kicks in and triggers the flash/beep to notify me about the incoming call.

But when I am on an outbound call and a incoming call comes in, Callcentric silently routes it to voicemail.

Upon contacting Callcentric, they said that "Our system does not look at the hook state for your ATA. You would need to be on an active call (through Callcentric) in order for the call waiting to work. When you're on an active call through Callcentric then our system will see that there is a call taking place and you'll hear the call waiting tone. Unlike with land lines we do not send any of those tones, rings tones, on or off hook, etc. in VoIP that is generated by your device. "

I was just curious...a) is this typical for all VOIP providers and b) is there some configuration on the Obi100 ATA that would allow for the call waiting notification even for outbound calls in my example?

Thanks

[VOIPisGreat]

I was under the impression if you have "CallWaitingEnable" checked within obi configuration, it should work, but I never experiment with it. Do you have this field checked?

[VANJ]

Yes, I do have it enabled. And, like I said, it works fine (I do get the stutter tone/flash when I am on an active inbound call and I get another inbound call), because Callcentric's systems serve both calls. But when I am on a outbound call and I get an inbound call, it goes straight to voicemail.

Here is what Callcentric customer support had to say "We haven't tested any other providers, but this should be a limitation with all VoIP providers. Everything in SIP/VoIP is IP based which is packet based it is not voltage based like with PSTN lines. We do not receive a packet telling us that your phone is off the hook. There is no way for us to detect on hook state because devices do not tell us whether they are on or off hook. With old PSTN lines the voltage came from the phone company so they always knew the state, however that is not the case with SIP"

So that's that I guess :-(

[VANJ]

I stand corrected. Looks like the Obi100 star code to enable *56 and disable *57 call waiting are the master switch. I may have inadvertently turned off CW. When it is on, CW works as expected regardless of inbound or outbound call active. Looks like the Obi interprets the SIP INVITE packet and flashes the attached phone's call waiting indicator just like a real land line.

I remain impressed with the Obi!  Fantastic piece of technology.

[Ostracus]

X_AcceptLinePortStatusSubscription

Enable the device to accept SUBSCRIBE to the LINE port status

Only applies to the Obi110.

The nature of the Obi means there's only a loose relationship between it's ports and it's services. PHONE port status appears to be strictly internal.