Outbound Call Routing - Is "Policy Based Routing" Feasible?

[Torvette]

Here is my setup:

SP1= FreePhoneLine.ca (Account #1)
SP2= Google Voice
SP3= CallCentric
SP4= FreePhoneLine.ca (Account #2)

Here is what I need to accomplish:

(1) I want to default all outbound calls through SP1, but if I am dialing to a North American number that is long distance to me via my SP1 provider,  I want the Obi to automagically detect that I am dialing outbound to North American long distance, and to automatically use SP2 (Google Voice), rather than have me prefix my call with "**2" to make this happen.

Here is what I tried to make this happen.  It MOSTLY worked - I think I was close, but the cigar eludes me, because after I made the following configuration, I somehow lost my ability to use
"*98" to access my SP1 voice mail (and I do not see/understand the correlation):

ServiceProviders->ITSP Profile
A->PhonePort->OutboundCallRoute={0:ph},{(1416x.|1647x.|1905x. |1
8x.|1613x.|1514x.|1519x.|1604x.|911):sp1},{(Msp2): sp2}

... which I understand means all regular 416/647/905/1800/613/514 calls (and 911) go out
via SP1. All other calls (i.e. long distance) go to SP2. Again, in my case
SP1 is FreePhoneLine.ca, and SP2 is Google Voice.

(2) In addition to (1), I also need to be able to dial "*98" to access my
SP1 voice mail.

(3) I also would like to use a distinct star code to access my SP2
voicemail (which is Google Voice - so is this even possible??), and so on for my sp3 voicemail and my sp4 voicemail.   Therefore, if *98 accesses my SP1 voicemail, can I use *88 to access my SP2 voicemail, *77 to access my SP3 voicemail, and *66 to access my SP4 voicemail (I realize that these star codes I am using in my example conflict with existing star codes - I am just using them as an example.  When I have a solution, I will choose star codes that are not already in use).


Many thanks!

[zapattack]

Why not use  Speed Dial?  For example, for Freephone use 'F' (3).
By pressing F# you would access speed dial 3, in which you put
**1 ( to access SP1) followed by what you need to access the VM system.
For FP account 2, you could use 'FF#' which is Speed Dial 33. (**4 etc.)

Similarly for GV you could use G# for Speed Dial 4 and put in **2 (for SP2)followed by your GV 11 digit number.   eg:**212025551234
and C#  for CallCentic - Speed Dial 2 (**3, etc.)

[Torvette]

Interesting idea.

I will give a shot and report back on my results - thanks for the input!

[Torvette]

Hmmm....

I did as you suggested (slight modification to the speed dial numbers, though):

Configured speed dial such that:

(1) 1# calls my SP1 voicemail
(2) 2# calls my SP2 voicemail
(3) 3# calls my SP3 voicemail
(4) 4# calls my SP4 voicemail

... and this worked as I expected.

BUT - when I then went to edit the "Outbound Call Route" again, it blew up - and I am now getting the "there is no call route available" error message.  So I am back to where I started.

Here is my Outbound Call Route Config again (the issue must lie here somewhere, but I cannot see it):

ServiceProviders->ITSP Profile
A->PhonePort->OutboundCallRoute={0:ph},{(1416x.|1647x.|1905x. |1
8x.|1613x.|1514x.|1519x.|1604x.|911):sp1},{(Msp2): sp2}


.... thoughts?

[Torvette]

Well, I have some progress.

There was a hard-to-catch typo in my OutboundCallRoute string  - an extra space before the toll-free numbers.  So, mostly all is good with the setup.

I was hoping to use *98 star code in addition to the speed dial (1#) config to access the voice mail for SP1 (just because the wife is picky, and insists she wants the use of *98).

*98 now just gives me a continuous tone.   The adventure continues....

[ianobi]

You (or your wife) cannot use *98 at the moment, because *98 is a "Star Code" used by your OBi for the Blind Transfer function. To forward *98 to your sp1 provider you need to do two things:

1. Delete *98 from the OBi:
Star Codes > Star Code Profile A > Code28 – delete and leave blank.
I'm assuming that your Phone Ports are using Star Code Profile A.
This means you do lose the Blind Transfer function.

2. Add *98 as follows (I'm using the default DigitMap, yours may differ):
Service Providers > ITSP Profile A > General > DigitMap:
(*98|1xxxxxxxxxx|<1>[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|011xx.|xx.|(Mipd)|[^*#]@@.)
You could replace *98 with *xx if you will be forwarding several two-digit star codes to your sp1 provider.


An alternative way of using the speed dial idea is to use trunk format. For example, instead of **212025551234 use:
sp2(12025551234)
This format totally ignores all digit maps and sends 12025551234 directly to sp2. The only downside of this format is that it only works from the phones attached to the OBi, not from OBiON or OBiAPP.

[Torvette]

Hi, and thanks for the input ianobi - it is much appreciated!

However, I think I am missing something here... I have followed your directions, but dialing *98 still gives me the original error message ("There is no call route available to complete your call"), rather than the continuous tone.

It still seems like my "outboundcallroute" config or syntax is somehow causing a conflict with the *98 function....Or there is something else about somewhere in my overall config that is causing the issue.

Here is my current outboundcallroute:

{0:ph},{(1416x.|1647x.|1289x.|1905x.|18x.|1613x.|1514x.|1519x.|1604x.|911):sp1},{(Msp2): sp2}


I will keep digging.

[ianobi]

I was assuming a conventional setup – always a dangerous assumption in this forum   

Service Providers > ITSP Profile A > General > DigitMap = (Msp1). At default (Msp1) occurs in the Phone Port Digit Map and the Phone Port OutboundCallRoute. This means that any changes made to (Msp1) will occur in both places. However, you have taken an unconventional approach by not including the DigitMap (Msp1) in your Phone Port OutboundCallRoute.

The result is that my first post only got you past OBi intercepting *98 to use as its own Star Code and made *98 an "allowed number" in your Phone Port DigitMap. To get *98 routed out on sp1 change your OutboundCallRoute to:

{0:ph},{(*98|1416x.|1647x.|1289x.|1905x.|18x.|1613x.|1514x.|1519x.|1604x.|911):sp1},{(Msp2): sp2}

[Torvette]

That did it!  Please accept my genuine thanks, and hope that I can someday repay the favour!

So close, yet so far!  My case is another example of how a little bit of knowledge is dangerous!  

If I understand correctly what we did, I see that, because I am specifying EXACTLY what goes out SP1, anything except what was in that list of are codes would go out SP2.  Google Voice has no idea what to do with *98, so we needed to include that in the outboundcallroute to ensure *98 goes to SP1.

Yeah, I guess my outboundcallroute is unconventional.  The goal was to have the Obi automagically make intelligent decisions about how to route calls by area code, to eliminate the need to prefix the call with "**2"... again, for the sake of the picky wife.

[ianobi]

You may not want to mess with something that works, but here's a suggested dial plan that should work much faster. Using rules such as 1416x. adds a lot of delay in sending out digits as the OBi does not know how many digits to expect and waits for up to ten seconds to see if you have finished dialling.

In this setup put all of your OBi202 digit maps and OutboundCallRoutes back to default, which includes the following settings:

Physical Interfaces > PHONE Port 1> PrimaryLine: SP1 Service
Physical Interfaces > PHONE Port 2> PrimaryLine: SP1 Service


Then you only need change one DigitMap as follows:

Service Providers > ITSP Profile A > General > DigitMap:
(*98|(1416|1647|1289|1905|1613|1514|1519|1604)xxxxxxx|18(00|88|77|66|55)xxxxxxx|911|<**2>(Msp2))

Numbers such as 1416xxxxxxx will go out via your Primary Line, which is sp1, with zero delay. Same for *98 and 911. Other numbers that match (Msp2) will have **2 automatically prepended to them and be sent out via sp2.

Of course, we have not so far looked at sp3 and sp4 ...

Why not have a go – you have nothing to lose but your sanity    

[Torvette]

It worked -  but I made a slight modification to the string:

(*98|(416|1416|647|1647|289|1289|905|1905|613|1613|514|1514|519|1519|604|1604)xxxxxxx|18(00|88|77|66|55)xxxxxxx|911|<**2>(Msp2))

To accommodate my speed dial, and to accommodate certain picky people who may or may not opt to dial the 11-digit version of the phone numbers available via SP1.  So now each area code now also has a 1x version of itself.

How the hell are supposed to QA this stuff with such fickle wives clients?

[ianobi]

Pleasing all of the people all of the time - now that is a real challenge