How force Intercom to be Paging (one-way audio)?

[uptime1]

So, I'm in a sales meeting proposing 3CX to a valued customer and he's describing how much he loathes his existing PBX's intercom that allows anyone in the office to reach his phone and unilaterally turn on the speaker and microphone and hear everything he's saying without his control or consent.

While I love the flexibility of Intercom, I can't blame him, especially in these days of heightened privacy concerns. ;->

Is there any way to force the Intercom (*9ext and MyPhone Intercom) function to make a one-way audio (just like Paging) connection instead of a two-way audio connection?

I experimented with the Grandstream GXP2100 configuration Accounts / Account 1 / Call Settings / Allow Auto Answer by Call-Info, and set it to Disabled. That stopped the phone from automatically answering the Intercom call and automatically turning on the speaker and mic, but it also broke the 3CX MyPhone's Call Deskphone Using Intercom (aka Make Call) function.

In concept, Ring Groups could be an solution, but maintaining two sets of extensions is messy.

Obfuscating the *9 dial code to something else is clever but leaves MyPhone's Intercom fully functional.

Perhaps there's a way to change Intercom to the functionality of a Ring Group when dialing a single extension?

Thoughts or tips?

Thanks!

Roy

 

[cobaltit]

@uptime1

Your customer's concern is why newer phones have a privacy option. I've not looked at disabling the mic, but most phones now will beep on the initial incoming intercom, and then beep again every 30-60 seconds so you don't have someone sitting on intercom listening in without any knowledge. Early implementations of intercom would let you do just that.

Now that I just looked in the web interface of my Yealink phone, there is an option for Intercom Mute and there is a setting for the 'Warning Tone'. So I think you just need to look through the manuals of whatever phones you are looking at deploying to confirm the option is available.