Callcentric Backup - Using Anveo with the Obi for E911 and DID

[MikeHObi]

I understand that Callcentric is having many issues outside their control, but when my Free incoming NY DID started giving fast busy, I finally took some time to setup a backup service.

In summary, Anveo is a capable backup service.  As I have it configured, my costs are going to be $2.80 per month for a DID with free incoming minutes and E911.  From what I can tell it is possible to have E911 with Anveo for only .80 per month using it as a SIP only account. 

Here is a summary of how I got it setup.  It took about 3 hours since there was a wait until my account was funded.  Not to mention it took a bit if trial and error since the Anveo website is not particularly friendly for someone who doesn't know anything (like me).
Anveo configuration.

#1 - Go to the Anveo website and create an account.  This account is free and is necessary to add services.
#2 - Enable SIP.  Note the recommendations on putting some Call Security on that, and take those steps.   Once you enable sip you can configure your Obi to talk to the sip.  Obi has built in support for Anveo.  I have an Obi202 so I set up Anveo as SIP3.   Once the Obi is configured your Anveo dashboard will show SIP Status as Online.  Note that Anveo will give you a username and password to configure the account. 
#3 - Add money to your account balance.  Use Paypal or Google Wallet to add a minumum of $10 to your Anveo balance.  Note this can take a few hours to 24 hours to show up in your Anveo account.  For me it took about 2 hours for my $10 to show up.

#4 - Turn on E911.  You can not configure E911 until you have a balance as the first seutp takes the monthly access fee.  But once the money is there you can turn it on.

You should now have E911 and can configure that SIP provider in the Obi for to support E911.  Anveo will generate a generic call back number if you place 911 over the sip that if dialed by 911 will ring back to your sip account.  So I don't believe you need a DID to get 911 service.  Now I didn't test that. But that is what ever indication I had was.

#5 - order a new phone number.  You pick your region, state, and area code, then pick the type of number.  There is the Anveo Value which is $1.00p/month in the US, and allows 150 min/day incoming calls.  I chose the Personal Unlimited number which allows all incoming calls Free.  Cost is $2.00 per month. That plus E911 has me at $2.80 per month vs CallCentric of 1.80 per month for the NY DID.  One big difference is this number can be from many places, not just NY.

#6 - Once you have the number on your account, configure the new phone number to use "This Account" ATA/IP Phone/softphone on the Call handler.  This will cause your Obi to ring however you have it configured from step 2.


You can now enroll that number for Google Voice. And have it setup so Google voice calls route through it.  Calls to that number will ring on SP3 of your Obi (assuming you put the Aveno on SP3).

CNAME w/ CALLER ID

The down side to Anveo vs Callcentric is that Cname callerid isn't free.  It is .009 cents per lookup.
I've enabled it for now to see how it works, but since I started using google voice and callcentric, I've started building a contact list, and I was able to export my list as CSV from Callcentric and load it into Anveo's contact list.  Like Callcentric, if a call comes in for someone in the contact list, the contact info from the list is presented as the incoming caller id rather than doing the cname lookup.  So you can have CNAME disabled and still get names for those you regularly get calls from by setting them up in contacts.

Anveo does have a service to sync your contacts with Google, but with a setup charge of around $30 and a $5.00 monthly fee, I can manage my list myself.

So that's what I'll be experimenting with for a while. 

[CoalMinerRetired]

Interesting. Like many on here I've been considering a replacement for Call Centric's E911 and CNAM. But even more than those two features I liked how forwarded GV calls you hear the spoken "Call from {person says their name}, press 1 to ..."

This may very well turn into the Anveo version of the classic 'Google Voice Setup Guide (with CNAM).'

[HMishra]

1: I would like to propose using the first option (of using call flow) instead of the one shown. It does need some configuration changes when setting up the call flow, but once done, will provide a failsafe mechanism to route your incoming calls to an alternative number e.g. cell# in the event of power failure or internet outage at your premises. The call flow I have setup is below.

2: The other option is to sign up for SIP status alert at an additional costy of $2.99/month.

(Interestingly, I cannot upload a screen print of my call flow. Says "The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator.")

[rsriram22]

with anveo's  E911, i d suggest you read up couple of post about the same on www.dslreports.com/forum/voip - few more providers are discussed as well. please be aware of the limitations of what each provider has to offer vs what you think you may be getting (in terms of cost per month)..

eg., when does the provider make an entry into E911 provider's database, what CID goes to 911 dispatch when 911 call is made etc..

[MikeHObi]

I embedded the image that is hosted in my google picassa account.  I've never seen image uploads work here. you could use flickr or other free image hosting service.

"Call from {person says their name}, press 1 to ..." is a function of Google Voice and has nothing to do with the SIP provider.  I believe OBI through the Google Chat interface disables this as it automatically presses 1 for you when you pick up the call.  If using a different route for phone calls other than Google Talk to the Obi, you don't get the automatic configure to press 1.  The configuration for this in Google Voice under settings, Calls, Call Screening.  There is an option to turn on call screening, and a check box for asking unknown callers to say their name.  Note, if you create groups for your contacts and put them in groups you can have different call behaviors for each group from google voice.

I didn't pick call flow because I didn't see a need for it and the risk of additional unexpected costs.  If you can provide a good example of the benefit for it, I'd love to hear.

For E911 my expectation is simply that the 911 operator sees my address, and if they need to call me back they can.  I do understand that with Anveo I can configure my Google Voice number and have it presented as the CID number for E911.  But that isn't really required is it?  I will read some of the other posts to see if there is something I'm missing.

[rsriram22]

... I do understand that with Anveo I can configure my Google Voice number and have it presented as the CID number for E911.  But that isn't really required is it?  I will read some of the other posts to see if there is something I'm missing.

you *cannot* set any number of your choice as outbound CID  for 911 calls with anveo (and CC)..  anveo sends a  'hidden' CID to 911 and so does CC (although CC can give that number to you ahead in time, but it only gets activated when 911 call is made)..

[HMishra]

(Reposting after embedding image)

1: I would like to propose using the first option (of using call flow) instead of the one shown. It does need some configuration changes when setting up the call flow, but once done, will provide a failsafe mechanism to route your incoming calls to an alternative number e.g. cell# in the event of power failure or internet outage at your premises. The call flow I have setup is below.



The above call flow will not cost any more if you have the 'Personal Unlimited' plan for $2.00/month. That entitles you to unlimited free incoming calls. E911 costs $0.80 on top of that for a total of $2.80/month.

(Edit) I would like to add that because of this call flow above, I did not elect to signup for the SIP status alert service mentioned below since I would receive the call using the failsafe mechanism if my Obi lost Anveo registration for any reason.

2: The other option is to sign up for SIP status alert at an additional costy of $2.99/month.

[MikeHObi]

you *cannot* set any number of your choice as outbound CID  for 911 calls with anveo (and CC)..  anveo sends a  'hidden' CID to 911 and so does CC (although CC can give that number to you ahead in time, but it only gets activated when 911 call is made)..

Understood now after reading some threads over at DSLReports.  I believe the main concern is that Anveo (and some others) dynamically create a temporary CID number for E911 to call you back on if you get disconnected.  The down side to this is that Anveo (and some others) have to provision your E911 data into the destination E911 provider when you place the call.  And only if this provisioning is successful does your E911 call get connected.  This on the fly provisioning is different than say a POTS line which provisions this data in the 911 database when the phone number is issued.

From what I found, Voip.ms doesn't do it this way, and instead assigns the 911 to a DID you enable.  The big difference thus that Voip.ms when connecting 911 doesn't have to do the inserting of your data into the 911 providers db while someone doing things like Anveo has to.  But this also means Anveo can give you E911 without you having a DID, and Voip.ms can not.

CallCentric does it similar to Anveo.

It would be interesting to see a guide for setting up Voip.ms or any other provider.  I did this one for Anveo simply because the configuration was less than clear for my simple needs and knowledge level.

[HMishra]

Speaking of E911, I just tested it by arranging ahead of time with my local police department. The call itself was answered succesfully and confirmed by 911 operator that she did see my verified address come through at her end.

However, at least with Anveo, there appears to be a delay of @ 5 seconds after dialing 911 for the phone at the other end to start ringing where as normal 10 digit numbers start ringing immediately. I am using the same digit map as configured by default by Obitalk portal when I setup Anveo service. Anyone else experience this delay if they have attempted a similar test?

Additionally, does anyone have a suggestion to remove the delay between dialing 911 to the phone ringing at other end? I know it has something to do with adding S0 at the end but not sure where to add it.

There is Service Provider -> ITSP Profile A -> DigitMap = (*xx|1xxxxxxxxxx|<1>[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|011xx.|xx.)

Also, Physical Interfaces -> Phone 1 -> DigitMap = ([1-9]x?*(Mpli)|[1-9]S9|[1-9][0-9]S9|911|**0|***|#|**8(Mbt)|**1(Msp1)|**2(Msp2)|**3(Msp3)|**4(Msp4)|**9(Mpp)|(Mpli))

Also, Physical Interfaces -> Phone 1 -> OutboundCallRoute = {911:sp1},{([1-9]x?*(Mpli)):pp},{(<#:>):ph2},{(<**8:>(Mbt)):bt},{**0:aa},{***:aa2},{(<**1:>(Msp1)):sp1},{(<**2:>(Msp2)):sp2},{(<**3:>(Msp3)):sp3},{(<**4:>(Msp4)):sp4},{(<**9:>(Mpp)):pp},{(Mpli):pli}

Finally, Physical Interfaces -> Phone 1 -> CallReturnDigitMaps = {pli:(xx.)},{sp1:(<**1>xx.)},{sp2:(<**2>xx.)},{sp3:(<**3>xx.)},{sp4:(<**4>xx.)},{bt:(<**8>xx.)}{pp:(<**9>xx.)}

Thanks,

[CoalMinerRetired]

You put "S0" right after any instance of 911, as in "911S0". The explanation for it is under "Digit Map Rules and Elements" in the device admin manual.

Here's the quote from the manual, I bolded the part that applies in what it does here:

S, S0, S1, S2, ...S9 - Digit timer of 0, 1, 2, ...,9 seconds respectively; S is equivalent to S1; S0 is the same as "blank". You can concatenate multiple S elements together if you need more than 9s timeout, such as S9S5 for a 14s timeout. S is CASE SENSITIVE. It should only be used either as the first element of a rule for hot/warm line implementation, or as the last element of a rule as a means of overriding the default interdigit timer

[HMishra]

The question is, which digit map?

ITSP Profile A -> DigitMap  or Phone 1 -> DigitMap?

Thanks.

[jimates]

My 911 has the normal 2 second delay. It is possible there is the normal 2 second delay at the Obi and more delay after that. You can check by pressing # immediately after dialing 911, any delay with that would be outside the Obi.

[jimates]

The question is, which digit map?

ITSP Profile A -> DigitMap  or Phone 1 -> DigitMap?

Thanks.

Phone 1 digit map. Also phone 2 on an Obi202.

[HMishra]

Thanks. I will test that out in the next couple days.

[ianobi]

I will be interested in the results of any tests on this. In theory there should be no delays involved at all.

There are no DigitMaps involved here. This rule:
Physical Interfaces -> Phone 1 -> OutboundCallRoute = {911:sp1}
Does not involve any Digit Map Processor comparing of rules etc, it processes rules from left to right and uses the first rule that matches. In this case {911:sp1} is the first rule it encounters and it matches, so it will send 911 out to sp1 with no DigitMap involved.

If S0 or pressing # does make a difference, then we may need to think of a better way of writing 911 rules.

I would test this myself, but I have involved trunk groups and DigitMaps in my emergency call routing, which does indeed add two second to processing the call. However, the pay-off is that I get a standby route for emergency calls.

[rsriram22]

so for S0 prefix, can someone confirm if the rule should  read:

Physical Interfaces -> Phone 1 -> OutboundCallRoute = {911S0:sp1}

thanks

[ianobi]

rsriram22,

Yes, that is the correct format. I'm not convinced it will make any difference, but it should do no harm. I guess it's not going to be easy to test to see what difference it makes!

Edit: This is wrong. It will do harm!

[ianobi]

WARNING!

Ignore my last post. This was too important not to test.

If you have 911 in the Phone Port DigitMap and 911S0 in the Phone Port OutboundCallRoute, then they do not match and 911 will not be sent out. If you have a xx. rule in any DigitMap, then it may be processed by that and sent out after a ten second delay on whatever DigitMap picks it up first.

Do not use S0 in the Phone Port OutboundCallRoute. It is only useful in Trunk DigitMaps (li, sp1, sp2 etc).

I used a dummy number to test this. I would be glad if others would also test and report back.

[lhm.]

The following test # works for me with about a 2 second delay. {(<922S0:1424279xxxx>):sp1},

[HMishra]

Ok, I did make changes to Physical Interfaces -> Phone 1 -> DigitMap by adding S0 below as indicated.

([1-9]x?*(Mpli)|[1-9]S9|[1-9][0-9]S9|911S0|**0|***|#|**8(Mbt)|**1(Msp1)|**2(Msp2)|**3(Msp3)|**4(Msp4)|**9(Mpp)|(Mpli))

I had plans to get this tested by conducting another prearranged 911 test however, coincidence or not, this added some latency to my incoming calls. That is, the calling phone would show my Anveo called phone ringing upto 3 rings before it really started ringing at my end. The calls did complete with great quality but I was not comfortable with this added latency, so reverted the changes back.

As I said above, I am not sure if there is a logical explanation to it or a complete coincidence but I repeated it 2 times with the same results.