Partnering business and conflicting extensions.

[Achronaut]

The assumption is we will be putting them onto our Avaya phone system. In this case, the numbers they had are able to be added to our system with a little massaging and it should be no problem. My question is, what happens if there was a problem. For example, assuming 4 digit extensions, what if they have 100 numbers that are on the same DID string as ours but with a different 3 digit prefix? We have 555-2223 through 555-2323, but they have 666-2223 through 666-2323 for example. What could we do to integrate them into our system without having to change all their numbers? Is there some sort of mask we could put over those or translation so they don't conflict, or are we just SOL at that point?

Thank you for your knowledge.

 

[Sean655]

From strictly a DID perspective, the DIDs can be manipulated at a trunk group level (if the trunks are PRI or SIP) on the inc-call-handling-trmt table. You would need to have the carrier send you at least 7 digits if you're currently getting 4 sent from them.

 

[jimbojimbo]

My recommendation is to go with E.164. This eliminates overlap issue on a global scale.

 

[phoneguy55]

you could move from a 4 digit dial plan to a 7 digit.

 

[Achronaut]

Thank you for the quick responses.

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Sean, are you suggesting using the inc-call table to have the existing DID's that conflict go to a different set of extensions inside the system? That would be a way we could continue to use their DID's, but would require changing all their extensions if I understand you correctly.

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Jimbo and Phoneguy, while I agree that moving to 7 or longer digit extensions would solve the issue, it pretty much removes any benefit of having internal extensions. There are many people who have internal 4 digit extensions memorized and that would cause retraining pain. Not that it couldn't be done, but...

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Sean655]

It depends on how you set up the extensions you're bringing in. You'll have to prefix extensions to avoid conflicts as you know but you could have blocks of DIDs ending in 2xxx. The table would let you have 555-2xxx delete 555 and route to 2xxx and have 444-2xxx route to 62xxx.

There are ways to have 7 and 10 (or more) digit dialplans but the local users can still dial 4 digits. Calltype analysis is used in that manner.