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Class of Service for local/national/international (v15.x)

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Rob Harvey

Bronze Partner
Intermediate Cert.
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Hello Community!

My background is Ericsson/NEC/Nortel/etc and I'm used to be able to have Class of Service list that I can apply to extensions to determine what kind of numbers they can call.

I can't find a clear explanation of whether or not you can achieve that with 3CX for customers that want it.

I'm in Australia so the standard class of service is something like: barred (Emergency only), internal, local, mobile, std, international, premium numbers. On the old TDM PBXs these classes where hierarchical so std also inherited mobile, local and internal.

I have a customer that wants to do this on 3CX and so far I've come up with a few problems and while I think I can do it, I'm not sure whether I'm going about it the best way.

I can create a loooooong list of outbound rules but the first problem I run into is there are four ways to dial a local number: an 8 digit number starting with 5, 6, 8 or 9; a 10 digit number starting with 03; a 15 digit number starting with 0011613 OR a 12 digit number starting with +613.

And that's just local numbers.

So at the moment I think I have to create 4 outbound rules for local numbers and then, maybe?, allow an extension group called "Local" to use those rules and every extension that needed local call access would need to be a member of that group.

Has anyone else had to duplicate a legacy PBX class of service system (preferably in Victoria, Australia!) and got it working? And if so, how? Am I on the right track?
 
Hello @Rob Harvey

I believe you on the right track with outbound rules as i don't see any other way of implementing the required functionality.
Just keep in mind that outbound rules are evaluated from the top to bottom.
You can create groups or just specify individual extensions in the outbound rule separated by a comma (,).
 
So at the moment I think I have to create 4 outbound rules for local numbers and then, maybe?, allow an extension group called "Local" to use those rules and every extension that needed local call access would need to be a member of that group.

If there are more users that are allowed to dial local numbers, then it may be easier to put the restrictions on the non-local numbers. You have to add extension numbers (or ranges of numbers) to outbound rules that then allow those extensions to use those rules. Users could be "taught" to dial local numbers using only the 8 digit format, anything else could be blocked.

We have something similar with local numbers on the PSTN network, if you attempt to dial a local number with a long distance prefix (1), you get a recording telling you that the number is not a long distance call and you must then re-dial.
 
If I put my "ACL" hat on then yes, I probably can restrict by exception and then just allow all at the local end of the spectrum - although this client also wants an internal only group (although I'm looking through his data and none of his extension are assigned that class of service so I probably safely ignore it for now!)

In regards to the response from yiannish_3cx, it's better to assign the outbound rules to a group called "Local Calls" and then add extensions to that group otherwise you could end up with the scenario where you've added the extension to three of the four "local" outbound rules and without good documentation (or a tech that actually reads it) you'll have trouble shooting!

In regards to leejor, if customers always did what they were told/taught ... we'd be out of a job! :) I prefer to try to make systems as idiot-proof as possible and assume that a bigger idiot will eventually come along! I do like the idea of routing calls in the wrong format to a message though. That's a really good way of changing their habits but it could be annoying if they are using click to dial from sources that use different formats. I'd prefer to make the system smart enough to handle curve balls than make the users responsible. A bit like Apple telling iPhone 4S users they were holding it wrong! :)

3CX - Class of Service is a fairly critical feature that all of your competitors have. It'd be nice to see a better method of call control although these days, the advantage would be in providing restrictions based on the cost of the call rather than the destination. In the past I have had mobile and international calls that were cheaper than local calls thanks to toll bypass and VoIP. In that scenario it seems silly to me that I allow them to call STD but not mobile and International! (I'm not always the one responsible for the decision though!)

If you do look at implementing a class of service, it might be an idea to look into setting up a cost based table as an option to the traditional TCD/Class of Service that Cisco and legacy PBXs use.
 
3CX - Class of Service is a fairly critical feature that all of your competitors have. It'd be nice to see a better method of call control although these days, the advantage would be in providing restrictions based on the cost of the call rather than the destination. In the past I have had mobile and international calls that were cheaper than local calls thanks to toll bypass and VoIP. In that scenario it seems silly to me that I allow them to call STD but not mobile and International! (I'm not always the one responsible for the decision though!)

If you do look at implementing a class of service, it might be an idea to look into setting up a cost based table as an option to the traditional TCD/Class of Service that Cisco and legacy PBXs use.
I would recommend posting your idea on https://www.3cx.com/community/forums/3cx-ideas/ . All posts are reviewed by their corresponding Departments and, if feasible and voted for by other users as well, may be implemented in an upcoming service pack or update.
 
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