PSTN vs. 3cx voicemail

[Hmmcintosh]

I have 3 PSTN lines coming in to our network through a Patton 4114 gateway. Each of these lines has voicemail provided by the PSTN provider as well as the 3CX voicemail. If I call in to one of the PSTN lines, and reach the 3CX server, and no one answers, I get the voicemail for the PSTN provider, not the 3CX voicemail. I'd like to get the 3CX voicemail in such a case.

So why don't I just cancel the option of having voicemail provided by our PSTN provider? Two reasons: (1) I'd like to have voicemail if our power goes out (since there obviously won't be 3CX voicemail), and (2) I'd like to have voicemail if all 3 of our lines are busy when someone calls in. So why don't I let our PSTN provider handle voicemail whenever there is no answer (whether the call reaches the 3CX server or not)? Well, I could, but it's not my first choice because 3CX will email us with the voicemail, which our PSTN provider won't.

So, is there a way to make sure 3CX handles the voicemail if the call gets as far as 3CX, but the PSTN provider handles cases where the call doesn't reach 3CX?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[leejor]

This can depend on the options available to you, for the voicemail that your provider offers. In some cases, a hunt group for example, the voicemail option could be placed only on the third line only. If all other lines were in use, then "call forward busy" , on line 3, would send the call to the PSTN voicemail. Of course, this would not answer if line 1, or 2, was never answered by 3CX.

If your provider allows you to adjust the "call forward no-answer" time, this could be increased to it's maximum, ideally, more than the answer time of an extension, or the 3CX voicemail.

You could , of course, reduce the chance of 3CX not being available through the use of a UPS.

 

[Hmmcintosh]

Hi leejor:

Thanks for your suggestions.

We have a UPS now, but it can only deal with fairly brief power outages. For better or worse, when we have power outages (which isn't that often) they tend to be long. I'm trying to avoid spending the money on a UPS that would be able to handle a long outage.

The "call forward no-answer" time sounds like a good idea. I'll contact our provider and see if that can be adjusted. That may solve the problem.

I was thinking there would be a 3CX or Patton option that would tell the PSTN that 3CX has the call, and it should consider it connected. It seems odd to me that the PSTN seems to still consider the call to not be connected even though 3CX has received it and is handling it. I haven't seen such an option. Is that just the way it works, or am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[NickD_3CX]

If you have the inbound rules pointing directly to extensions and and extension doesn't pickup when there is incoming call it would be wrong for the Patton to connect the call as this would start charging the caller before the call was answered.
You could get around this I believe if you pointed the incoming calls to a Queue, which would then in turn poll the agents/extensions in that Queue (it could be only one too). This way the Patton should connect the line and thus keep the line open.

 

[Hmmcintosh]

I'll give that a try--thanks Nick!

 

[leejor]

You could get around this I believe if you pointed the incoming calls to a Queue, which would then in turn poll the agents/extensions in that Queue (it could be only one too). This way the Patton should connect the line and thus keep the line open.

Unfortunately, in the case of a PSTN line, it is considered "engaged" if it is connected to a phone (3CX trunk) that has answered, or is simply ringing. So...even if you have not yet answered a ringing call, if a second call came in, it would go straight to the PSTN provided voicemail as the line is considered "in-use" unless you have a Call Waiting option, which you definitely don't want when using 3CX trunks.