Limit Incoming Calls Whilst Keeping Outgoing Calls

[joel.wraight]

Hi,

I have a customer who wants to limit their inbound calls to 1. However they have 3 different telephone numbers each one having their own trunk. So I can limit the simultaneous calls on each trunk to 1, but if I do that if someone calls in on a different number they will still get through. I can't exactly set the sim. calls to 0 because then it won't work at all. Regardless of having 3 numbers I want 1 phone call at any time inbound. Anyone know a way of doing this?

Also, if I set the sim. calls to 1, is there still a way of allowing an outgoing call whilst someone is dealing with an inbound call? I take it there's not because you're limiting it at a trunk level? All incoming calls go to a ring group. It would be better if 3CX had an option to limit the sim. calls at the ring group level instead of the trunk. There's no way of doing that I'm guessing?

This all came about because my customer wasn't happy with not being able to see missed calls if the call skipped her in the 'ring all' ring group and then someone else failed to pick up. The only way for her to see that missed call would be to go to that other person's handset right? Or look at the extension's web client who missed the call?

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

I can't exactly set the sim. calls to 0 because then it won't work at all. Regardless of having 3 numbers I want 1 phone call at any time inbound. Anyone know a way of doing this?

Since you can only limit sim calls on the SIP Trunk level, to do this you'd need to only have one SIP Trunk. Unless of course you do not mind having only one DID receive calls, you could only disable "Incoming Calls" for the rest and only use them fro Outbound.

Also, if I set the sim. calls to 1, is there still a way of allowing an outgoing call whilst someone is dealing with an inbound call? I take it there's not because you're limiting it at a trunk level?

Not with one SIP Trunk no. You would have to make use of two SIP Trunks, one only for Inbound Calls with 1 sim call and the other only for Outbound Calls again with 1 sim call.

This all came about because my customer wasn't happy with not being able to see missed calls if the call skipped her in the 'ring all' ring group and then someone else failed to pick up. The only way for her to see that missed call would be to go to that other person's handset right? Or look at the extension's web client who missed the call?

A Ring Group set to Ring All will actually not send a Missed Call notification if anyone of the Ring Group answers the call, is this perhaps what you mean is happening?

 

[leejor]

The proper way to do this, would have been to use (give out) only one number, from the beginning, for inbound calls, and using the other two, for outbound only. Of course, people being called, using caller ID, may try returning calls using one of the two numbers, that you use for outgoing. You could have those set to go to an IVR recording telling them to call the one number, you use for incoming, or simply end the call.

If all 3 SIMs are on one gateway, and, as suggested, they can be changed to come in on a single 3CX trunk, then you'd have some control over how many simultaneous calls (one) the trunk group would accept. Keep in mind that if your mobile provider has assigned voicemail, on the numbers, the calls, if unanswered, will route there.This limit will also be applied to outgoing calls, although there might be a way around that (theoretically) if you could create a second, outgoing only trunk to the same gateway without the one call limit.

The other thing you might look into, if possible, is to activate call forwarding, for two of the SIMs. Send all calls to the third SIM. This way all incoming calls will only come on on one number

 

[NickD_3CX]

This all came about because my customer wasn't happy with not being able to see missed calls if the call skipped her in the 'ring all' ring group and then someone else failed to pick up. The only way for her to see that missed call would be to go to that other person's handset right? Or look at the extension's web client who missed the call?

To go back to the initial conversation, if this is the problem, why not switch to using a Queue instead of a Ring Group. Then in the Queue you can enable "Notify Queue Manager when a Queue call is lost" and you can add the extension numbers of everyone you want to receive emails when a lost call happens.
Also, if the users have PCs, they could always use the WebClient or Desktop App to see the Abandoned Queue Calls, which would also help them coordinate who calls the numbers back: