Asterisk (*) in Directory Number

[s.casper_2]

Due major overlaps in our dialplan I was thinking about using the asterisk (*) going forward to preface our telephone Directory Numbers in Call Manager. Any opinions on if this would work and any drawbacks?

[anup.anand]

Yes, this will work because * is a valid Directory number digit in Callmanager.

Here are some of the challenges with *

1. Unity does not allow using * in the Extension number field. So setting up voicemails for these extensions would be an issue.

2. Incoming calls from Telco. Do you have plans to provide DID's to these phones? If yes, then you would need to create translation patterns to append a * for all incoming calls

Regards,

Anup

[s.casper_2]

Thanks for the feedback

I am ok with using translation patterns to append the * for incoming calls.

I wonder if I could use the mask under Voice Mail Profile to remove the * before sending a call to Unity.

Steve

[anup.anand]

Yes, you can use the mask to remove the *, but if you take out the * then it would lead to overlapping extensions. For example, you already have an extension 4000 and you add a new one, *4000. In Unity you can have only one mailbox with extension 4000. If you use the mask to remove *, then calls to both these extensions will be answered by the same mailbox.

A workaround would be to create a mailbox in Unity by prepending a number, say 8 rather than *. The mailbox for *4000 will be 84000, and then use the mask to remove * and add 8.

Regards,

Anup

[s.casper_2]

Thanks again for your feedback.

My problem is on the Call Manager side with overlaps. I am using 10 digit mailboxes with 7 digit alternate extensions in Unity.

On Call Manager we are also using 10 digit Directory Numbers. All phones are in the "Cluster" partition. Where I am running into trouble is with 4 digit dial for intra site calls.

For instance we have a location A with a 4103476XXX DN range with a translation pattern setup for 6XXX. This was fine until we added new site B with a range of 60727448XX. This site's DNs can not be dialed directly because of the conflict between the 6XXX translation pattern and the first four digits of the new sites range 6072. Of course 6072 is a important number at Site A that can not be changed!

Due to mismanagement of the dial plan there are no digits that be used to prepend the 10 digit DNs without running into conflicts with 4 digit intrasite dialing. That is why I was hoping to use the *.

[Chris Deren]

I did an design and implemantation where the *XXX (XXX is side code) was used for intra-site calls. Basically to call another user at another site * plus 7 digits was dialed. I actual DNs were seven digits and there was a translation pattern that was stripping the *. There were no issues what so ever with this setup.

Chris

[anup.anand]

Just a suggestion, you can setup the translation pattern as 6XXX# to avoid the overlap. You would need to advise users to use # for 4 digit dialing.

Regards,

Anup