long distance billing code

mikedurbin · ‎01-03-2008

Hello all. I have a client with a request that I may need some guidance on. The client has told me that when they dial a long distance call, after they dial the number, they get a "beep" and they dial a code, which tells the LD provider that they are a certain department within the company, and that department gets billed for it. We are putting a cucm in, and Im not sure if I would need to do something on this system or of its automatic in the LD provider. Anyone know for sure? They specifically tell me that its not an internal function that separates the billing. Its done by the long distance providers themselves.

Brandon Buffin · ‎01-03-2008

There is a feature within Call Manager called Forced Authorization Codes which can do this. You can also request this service from your long distance provider. If you want the seperation to be done when the LD bill comes in, contact your provider and request the service.

Hope this helps. If so, please rate the post.

Brandon

mikedurbin · ‎01-03-2008

It sounds like the LD provider does the work then, not us putting the system in. Since they are the ones keeping track, correct? I thought about the FAC, but I thought that those digits wouldnt actually be sent out over the PSTN. I thought that would be more for "access" to long distance.

Brandon Buffin · ‎01-03-2008

Yes, if you choose the option of requesting this service from your provider, they do the work and this function is largely independent from the installation of the system. Correct, FAC digits are not sent to the PSTN. After thinking about your situation, if you wanted to do this internally, it would probably make more sense to use Client Matter Codes which would allow you to report on usage. But, my recommendation would be to allow the LD carrier to track calls. This cuts down the complexity and allows LD bills to come in already having been seperated based on your needs.

Brandon

mikedurbin · ‎01-03-2008

Thanks you for the help. Im not sure if this is a CAS line or not, but I feel this will simplify the config if the provider takes care of this. Thank you.

pcameron · ‎01-03-2008

We have made this work many times on Call Manager. Generally the LD service is via a T1 CAS trunk, so on the CCM you set up a H323 or MGCP gateway using E&M wink operation. Users will ring the LD number, and they will then get a second dial tone or indicator tone to key in a department code or PIN to allow the call to proceed.

If you use later 12.4 code on the gateway this should work fine - there was an earlier bug where the LD service providers would not send a answer signal when playing the indicator tone, so the CCM would not allow any DTMF tones to be played out causing the call to fail, but this has been fixed for a long time now.