Extension Mobility Issues

[Jason Amick]

I just started working for a new company and they leverage extension mobility pretty heavily, pretty much every user has a device profile assigned to them so they can move almost anywhere in the building and their extension follows.  The caveat I have is that each device/phone has an 8XXX extension as the base extension but that extension on the phone is never utilized since 9 times out of 10 it has a specified user logged in via EM.  Basically our company is growing at a fast pace and if I could re-use the 8XXX range for another department instead of wasting them all on devices just so the phone would register and a user could login that would be great.  I do not think there is a way around it but wanted to post the question to see if anyone else has found an alternative. Thanks!!

[devils_advocate · Accepted solution]

What is the 8XXX extension actually used for when the user is logged out?

Do people need to call it?

Some companies pick a single dummy DN (for example 1111) and assign that to all phones as the Primary Line button to ensure the device actually registers. Once the users logs in, the primary line is the users extension and if they log out, it goes back to the Dummy 1111. You can just assign the same dummy extension to all phones.

Even if you use paritions, you just create the same dummy DN and add this to all phones as Line 1.

You could even Call Forward all the dummy number to a pre recorded message to ensure all logged out phones are not ringing if someone were to dial the dummy DN. 

Thanks

[Jason Amick]

Unfortunately the 8XXX number for these phones is not a single number such as 8111.  Its spready out through that whole range of DNs.  I thought about using a single number such as 1111 like you suggested so its basically a single shared line shared on all devices but wanted to make sure there wasnt any caveats I was missing before doing it this way.  To my knowledge noone would ever need to dial the 8XXX number which is why I opened this discussion as they have been wasting a whole range of DNs.  I just wanted to see how other companies/engineers implement EM.  The only thing I would need to watch out for is that if a phone was idle and someone needed to use it in an emergency that they would still be able to dial 911 as well as keeping someone from dialing the new DN directly and making all the devices ring at the same time. Thanks!!

[devils_advocate]

You could utilise Calling search spaces and partitions to ensure the dummy 1111 number was able to dial 911 and nothing else.

Calling search spaces can be applied at both the DN level and the device itself so as long as it's thought out properly,  you could stick the dummy DN in a CSS which only had a partition that was avle to dial 911. That way you achieve both goals, the phone has a dummy DN so it can register and when logged out, any user caller can still dial 911.

We use EM and do a similar thing.

Thanks

[rossporubski]

If you're internal any phone should be able to dial 911 in EM even without an assigned DN. We manage ours without a DN.

[Jason Amick]

Thank you both for this information, I think its kind of a no brainer to take this approach.  The main thing I wanted was to find out how other companies were deploying their dial plan when using EM and you guys answered that.  Thanks again!!

[rossporubski]

Is there any specific reason why? I would definitely be interested in knowing. Are you sure they're all EM and not a mix EM and standard issue? I've seen no number EM phones and single dummy DN assigned EM phones but I've never seen an EM environment where they assign unique numbers to every profile. What is the purpose behind doing this?

[Jason Amick]

Ross:

Each EM profile has their own unique extension in a totally different extension range (Ex. 2XXX).  But the 8XXX extensions are just on the phones for registration purposes so someone can login to them.  Very rarely does a phone not have someone signed in via EM. Thanks!!

[rossporubski]

Hi Jason, I do undertand that. What I don't understand is the need to assign a unique 8xxx extension to every phone. All you need is one EM phone profile and put the same 8xxx number on all of them with no CSS so the phone is inoperable except for 911 or internal calls extension to extension one way.

As I said we did it that way at one company and the current company I work for has no assigned extension at all. It's just essentially an EM terminal. Once logged out its useless for anything including internal extension to extension except for 911.

[Jason Amick]

Ross:

I think I may be confused, sorry!! Each EM profile is for a seperate agent, they all need unique extension for UCCX purposes.  My original issue is that each hardphone itself has a unique 8XXX extension which isnt needed.  Thanks!!

[rossporubski]

Ok, :) Now we're on the same page. Yes each EM Profile must be unique but all you need is one EM phone profile. I guess your company has some business specific reason behind assigning a unique DN and creating a zillion EM phone profiles. Personally I'd be interested in finding out what that reason is. Anyway, I hope you got what you needed. Good luck!

[rossporubski]

Typically that 8xxx number is only one number, if it isn't they're doing something wrong. As in extension mobility there is only one phone profile for EM, its the "Device Profile Configuration" that is unique to each EM subscriber. They use that profile to login to the phone.