Remote call forwarding and caller ID

[phonesaz]

I am almost positive this cannot be done...but...there is a lot I don't know so it never hurts to ask. I have a customer who receives 150+ calls per day and is out of the office at least 50% of the time. In his old office he had 3-line phones and each person had their own line, so when they left the office they did the *72 call forwarding from Qwest and received the caller ID from the originating caller which enabled him to better manage which calls to answer and which to let go (when he is out of the office he is in court a lot, and has to excuse himself to answer some calls and will let most of them go to voice mail.) Now he has a Magix with inbound DID on a PRI T1, so his forwarded calls show his DID number, not the originating caller...or at least I thought they showed the DID; there is some confusion on that, as well.

He needs the caller ID badly enough to remove the T1 and go back to copper, or add a bunch of copper lines in addition to the T1, which will increase his bill a lot...and there is a real possibility that there aren't enough facilities in the street to add the 10 more he will need (it took 2 months to get pairs for the T1) so finding an alternative answer would be a huge plus.

And...not to offend anyone's sensibilities...would an IP Office be able to handle this issue, or is it still all about the carrier doing the call forwarding versus the switch doing the call forwarding? And would the simultaneous remote call forward feature make any difference? Any help would be appreciated - the guy wants to yank everything out, but that still won't solve his base problem of 10 people in a 25-person office needing this capability. Thanks.

 

[SYQUEST]

This is a very complicated situation. I am not aware of a system that will take the incoming CID and send it out again on an outgoing or "forwarded" call to present it to the destination. Granted you need PRI ISDN in order to do this using a PBX or equivalent to handle the switching. But it requires having flexible software to make it work...

You probably have some research to do with some service providers, and see if they offer anything that might work.

You might start with Qwest and find out what they offer in the area of ISDN CENTREX. Utilizing the "common block" for the number plan you can have both POTS, PRI, and BRI lines all part of the same "DID" number group. So you may have to use a combination of both types of lines or facilities on the system in order to achieve what your client needs for the system to work.

For those that need the CID sent to the destination, they would have an analogue CENTREX line and use the Call Forwarding feature set for their needs. The rest of the company would utilize the PRI ISDN on the PBX for their calling needs.

Hope this helps!

....JIM....

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Repost your question on the IP Office forum - a combination of the carrier, the T1, and mobile twinning will allow what you are asking for.

 

[phonesaz]

Thanks TTT - I have seen a couple of threads in the IP forum and have posted the same ?? there - but no way with a Magix unless I have individual copper?

 

[xjswx]

I don't think there is anyway for the magix to do this either.

Maybe go with adding 1 Centrex line per user that forwards to their cell phones. Have the T1 do a trunk to trunk transfer(if thats possible) to the centrex line and have the telco set up the proper channeling.

Might work, might not. I personally have never had this situation come up.

 

[bluemr2]

A nortel BCM will do this out of the box, as long as you have a PRI for PSTN access.

 

[phonesaz]

We are putting in an Avaya IP500 next week - thanks for all the input.