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7/10/11 digit dialing for metropolitan areas in OBiTALK portal

Started by MichiganTelephone, March 25, 2011, 12:28:09 AM

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MichiganTelephone

I have a friend that purchased an OBi110 last time they were available from Obihai and I've been helping him get it configured.  He lives in the Twin Cities and has a 651 area code for both his landline and his Google Voice number.  The interesting thing is that from his landline he can dial calls in the following manner:

Calls within the 651 area code - only seven digits required
Calls within the 320, 507, 612, 763, 952 area codes - only ten digits required (ten digits optional for 651)
Callis to any other NANP number - eleven digits required (eleven digits optional for all calls)

You may wonder how the switch knows if you are dialing a 7 or a ten digit call.  The way it can tell is that all those area codes are "protected" from also being used as exchanges.  So there are no 651-320-XXXX numbers, no 650-507-XXXX numbers, no 651-651-XXXX numbers, etc.  So if you dial any of those area codes as the first three digits, it knows to wait for a full ten digits rather than cutting through after seven digits.

In the OBiTALK portal, you have an option to enter a area code for "7-Digit Dialing for USA & CAN".  I am wondering if maybe there should be an additional option, "10-Digit Dialing (major metro areas)" that would accept a comma-separated list of three digit area codes that can be used for local ten digit calling.  If the user started dialing a number that began with one of these prefixes, the device would wait for ten digits rather than seven.

I'm guessing you can do this now using the expert configuration (not sure offhand of the best way) but I just am thinking that something like this might be useful to those living in large cities with a local calling area that includes multiple area codes, where people may be used to dialing ten digits for such calls.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

oleg

Wouldn't the following Digit Map do the trick? Just a wild guess (I did not test it)...

(<1651>xxxxxxx|<1>651xxxxxxx|<1>320xxxxxxx|<1>507xxxxxxx|<1>612xxxxxxx|<1>763xxxxxxx|<1>952xxxxxxx|1[2-9]xxxxxxxxx)


Anyway, I agree that it may be good idea for the portal wizard.

MichiganTelephone

oleg, that probably would work, if placed in the correct place.  And herein lies the problem — as much as I've worked with these I still can't remember where stuff like this should go.  For the phone port alone, you have DigitMap, OutboundCallRoute, and CallReturnDigitMaps.  For each service provider you have an X_InboundCallRoute (okay, I get that this one is for incoming calls, but it might confuse some), and then in each ITSP Profile, under the General settings there is a DigitMap.  It gets a little confusing at times to remember what goes where.  At times I wish there were a "dummy's guide" to this stuff because even though I've been around things like this for many years, I still get confused about what goes where.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate that we have all this configurability, but with great configurability comes great responsibility (or something like that).  It would be really nice if there were a guide or a sticky post or something that explains how these fields interact, in simple terms.

And that's why I suggested it for the portal. Most folks would likely rather enter a comma-separated list of local area codes than to try and figure out where to insert a string like that (which would require using the Expert Configuration, which itself would probably scare a few users).  But having said that, I'm pretty sure your Digit Map addition would work, if inserted in the correct place.  Thanks!
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

QBZappy

MT,

At this rate we may be needing a FreePBX type front end for the OBi. ;)
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

oleg

Quote from: MichiganTelephone on March 26, 2011, 02:17:46 PM
It would be really nice if there were a guide or a sticky post or something that explains how these fields interact, in simple terms.

I hope you had a chance to read OBi admin guide (http://www.obihai.com/docs/OBiDeviceAdminGuide.pdf).
If not - there I found the best (so far) explanation of DigitMaps.

And again, I do agree that something wizard-like on the portal can be useful for "normal" user.

MichiganTelephone

oleg, I did read it, including the part about DigitMaps.  The problem is, it's written for programmers, not for users, or at least it seems that way.  No offense intended to the guys at Obihai — at least they made the effort to document it, which is more than some other companies have done for their products.  Thing is, the older I get, it seems like the lower my comprehension level, and the shorter my memory.  :'(  So I guess I just wish that stuff were a little easier to comprehend and remember.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

oleg

MT, from the very first reply I agreed with you - such feature would be good for portal users.

And my sincere apology if my posts sounded offensive - my English remains quite awkward  :-[

MichiganTelephone

Oleg, your English is fine, and you have not offended me at all.  I appreciate your contributions to this forum, and am glad you're here!
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.