Drop active calls when office hours expire

[TMCentral Tech]

We support a residential medical facility that is having trouble of patients not getting off the phone when phone hours are over. We'd like to configure the 3CX to drop all calls and prevent new outbound calls from the patient extensions when office hours are over. Blocking new calls is not a problem, it's the active calls where a patient wanders off with the cordless. Currently the staff is just unplugging the base to terminate the calls, but I was hoping there was a technical solution.

Thanks,

 

[AWS2P]

Could you be more specific explain where is the pbx, who is calling who ? is it internall calls?

 

[TMCentral Tech]

The PBX is on a local Server. The patients are calling only external numbers from extensions 500-510 during pre-approved phone times of 9pm-11pm with no inbound calling allowed to those extensions. At 11pm, I would like to terminate all the active calls on extensions 500-510 - In a perfect world, an automated playback would come on at 10:55 with an announcement "Calls will drop in 5 minutes please complete your calls now," but I'm fine with posting a sign that reads "Calls disconnect at 11:00." The staff use extensions 100-300 and any active calls on those extensions should not be dropped.

 

[AWS2P]

Perhaps I'm wrong but I can't see 3CX native settings able to do this like you want.
The staff use same Trunk SIP as patients?

 

[AWS2P]

Only way IMO is to use CFD to make a particular call flow scenario like you want

 

[TMCentral Tech]

Thanks! I'll take a look at CFD and see what I can come up with. If not, the low tech solution does seem to do the trick. If I were OK with dropping all calls, would that make a difference? There shouldn't be much staff calling at 11pm anyway.

 

[AWS2P]

For my taste this is not so kind way to drop calls, but this is your pbx

 

[AWS2P]

How do you want to prevent a new call restart after 11 pm even if you drop them?
There is no way in 3cx to block outgoing traffic for some extensions only based on scheduled time

 

[VoIPTools]

Actually, this all can be done with the Call Control API. This cannot all be done with just a Call Flow Designer application.

You will need a service that executes at the pre-determined times. This service will look for active calls on the specified extensions. The service will initially barge in to the call at 10:55 p.m. with a warning that indicates "we are going to drop your call in 5 minutes". Then, at 11:00 p.m., you can divert the offending calls to an IVR that says something like "Patient calls are not permitted after 11:00. Your call has been disconnected. You can initiate a new call tomorrow at ....". The IVR should not allow any options and should end the call after the prompt is played. Further, you can use the Call Control API to disable the extensions' ability to make external calls. Finally, the next morning, at 9:00 a.m., the service could re-enable the extension to make external calls.

I'm confident you can make this work exactly as you have described. You just need to write some custom code.

 

[leejor]

You realize that by simply dropping calls, you run the risk of terminating an emergency call, and running the risk of legal action. An extreme example, but something to consider.