Video Walkthrough of Dial Plans
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Dial Plans require Trunks
"Trunks" are connections to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). "PSTN" is a fancy acronym that basically means: you can call other people.
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Please read about trunks at the links below:How to: Interpret the trunks pageHow do I configure TDM cards?
How do I add a VoIP Trunk/Account?
Centrex Users!
If your analog lines use Centrex - DO NOT EVER STRIP THE 9 IN THE EXAMPLES BELOW.
This condition only applies to a small number of users. If you do not have Centrex on your analog lines - ignore this section completely.
Step-by-Step Dial Plan Instructions
Click on Options --> dial plan
For trixbox Pro and Dell customers, you may choose the leading digit to dial an outside number (9 by default) by choosing any digit from the drop down menu.
In the box under 'Dial String' enter a new dial string. Examples of valid dial strings are:
nxxnxxxxxx - matches any 10-digit phone number
310nxxxxxx - matches any 10-digit phone number beginning with area code 310
nxxxxxx - matchs a 7-digit phone number
800nxxxxxx - matches any 800 number
1nxxnxxxxx - matches any 10-digit number preceeded by a 1.
011. - matches any international number. 011 represents the three digits required to inform your telephone company you are about to make an international call, and '.' indicates any number of subsequent digits entered. Use the '.' as a wildcard to say 'match any and all digits'
You can create dial plans using any combination of numbers and the wildcard characters: 'n' 'x' '.'
Enter a Description for your new dial plan. This description serves to help the administrator quickly tell various dial plans apart. Descriptions have no effect on the functionality of any dial plan.
The 'Type' field serves to prioritize dial strings. Choose from among the following types:
Toll Free
Local Call
Long Distance
International
Select the first route from the drop-down under 'Route'. PBXtra s allow up to three unique routes per dial plan. If the first route becomes unavailable for any reason, the system attempts to complete the call via the second route. If the first and second routes are unavailable, the system attempts to complete the call via the thrid third route. If all three routes are unavailable, the system plays a busy signal to the caller.
Choose the number of digits to remove from the dial string entered by the user. By default, users place outbound calls by dialing 9 + some number. Your telephone carrier does not need the initial '9', so all PBXtra s are configured to remove the leading 9 by default.
Hint: If you would like to create 'security codes' for a particular dial plan (e.g. international calls), enter the security code before the '011' and then strip a number of digits equal to 9 + your security code. Example: 9 + 12345 + 011. Strip = 6 (912345). Digits sent to carrier = 011.
Choose a number of digits to be prepended to your dial plan. This option is particularly useful if you wish to allow your employees to dial 7 digits only for local numbers even in areas where 10-digit dialing is mandatory. You can create a dial plan like: 9 + nxxxxxx, Strip 1, Prepend 310. Now whenever an employee dials 9 + 7-digits, the system will dial 310 + 7-digits which would complete a local call from a Los Angeles location to another Los Angeles location.
Click 'Add Dial Plan'
Dial Plan Examples
Standard Long-Distance
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The long distance dial plan is configured on all systems by default. It includes only 2 digits and 10 variables.
The first 9 means "this will be an outside call"
The 1 tells your telephone company (or VoIP Provider) that you are making a long-distance call
The next n means "accept any digit from 2-9". No North American area code begins with a 0 or 1
The x characters will match any digit 0-9
Another n appears because the first digit in a local phone number is never a 0 or 1 according to the NANP
The Description and Type fields exist to help classify the dial plan for Administrators. End-Users need not be concerned with either of these fields
The Route column provides fail-over in the event that a primary route is down:
In the example above, all long-distance calls will be passed to VoicePulse VoIP first. If VoicePulse is down for any reason...
The call will be passed to Cbeyond VoIP. If Cbeyond is down for any reason...
The call will be passed to AF VoIP. If AF VoIP is down - the call will fail.
The Strip field removes digits from the dial plan string before it is sent to the telephone company (or VoIP Provider). So Strip 1 means "remove the first digit - 9 - and send the rest to the phone company". The phone company understands a number like "1 310-861-4300". The phone company equipment does NOT understand "9 1 310-861-4300". So we remove the 9 and send the "1 310-861-4300" to the phone company.
Targeted Long Distance
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In this dial plan, we statically list a US area code at the beginning of the string. Unlike the standard long-distance dial plan, this configuration does the following:
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Cbeyond might be offering us unlimited free inbound and outbound calls to Denver, CO, which is why we choose this as the primary trunk.
Standard International
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Standard International dial plans are very simple.
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Let's look at the Route, Strip, and Prepend fields:
The first route is http:// Bandwidth.com . Bandwidth requires some interesting formatting for dial plans:
All International calls should NOT contain "011" when sent to Bandwidth - therefore we strip 4 digits (9 + 011) and send only the country code and number to Bandwidth.
All outbound calls require a leading + sign according to Bandwidth. Therefore we prepend a + sign to the number.
The result is an International number send to Bandwidth as follows (using Japan as the country for example):
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Different companies may have different rules about dial plans - please check with your PROVIDER for the proper formatting conventions.
International Calls with Access Code Restriction
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In the dial plan above, we have introduced a new convention - access code restrictions - preventing people who do not know the code from making International calls.
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In this fashion - we have created a usable access code preventing unauthorized people from placing calls to certain destinations.
Using a Linked Server to place outbound calls
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Customers who purchased the Linked Server option can configure their dial plans such that users on Server A can place outbound calls through Server B's trunks (PRI, Analog lines, VoIP trunk, etc.)
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This dial plan accomplishes local calls from the 310 area code to another number in the 310 area code such that end-users only need dial the 7 digit phone number. The server adds 310, and sends all 10 digits (minus the 9) to the telephone company (or VoIP provider).
Don't Overlap Dial Plans!
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In the list of Dial Strings at left, there are two strings that overlap and will cause problems on your server.
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