Outbound Routes enable you to choose which Trunks (phone lines) to use when users dial external telephone numbers. A simple installation will direct the PBX to send all calls to a single trunk. However, a complex setup could have an outbound route for emergency calls, another outbound route for local calls, another for long distance calls, and perhaps even another for international calls.
You can even create a “dead trunk” and route prohibited calls (such as international and premium calls) to it.
Outbound Routes are a set of rules that vPBX uses to determine which trunk to use for an outbound call. Many VoIP systems have access multiple trunks, as it can be unnecessarily expensive to route all calls over a single trunk. Outbound routing also allows dialed numbers to be rewritten on the fly (to remove or prepend dialed numbers with specific outside access codes or area codes). Routes are defined using patterns, against which the dialed numbers are matched.
Outbound routes have a priority. If a dialed number matches the pattern in two outbound routes, the route with the lower priority rating will be used to place the call. The priority is determined when you define an outbound route: The Route Position list in the Route Settings section determines the sequence in which outbound routes are tested, until a match is found.
General
- Description*, short description to identify this outbound route. The name is usually descriptive of the purpose of the route (for example, “local” or “international”).
- Trunks, list of trunks to use. The order of these matter, the top one will have a higher priority over the others below.
- PIN, from PIN Lists, using the previously created password sets (if any), to authenticate access to this route. PIN sets can be configured in the vPBX PIN dialog.
- Outbound CID, it allows you to define a specific Caller ID Number/Name that will be using on this outbound route when the “Overwrite CID” setting is enabled.
- Overwrite CID, Overwrites the CID sent by the Extension or module. You got the following options.
- No, no overwrite will take place and the CID number is preserved.
- Yes, will overwrite any CID number sent through this route.
- If not Provided, will overwrite the CID information if no External CID is provided.
- Intra-Company, if checked, the internal caller id will be sent through this outbound route, instead of the external caller id of the calling extension.
- Dial Patterns:
- Prepend, digits to add to a successful match.
- Prefix, prefix to remove to a successful match.
- Pattern, pattern matching allows us to create extension patterns in our dial plan that match more than one possible dialed number Options:
- X: The letter X or x represents a single digit from 0 to 9.
- Z: The letter Z or z represents any digit from 1 to 9.
- N: The letter N or n represents a single digit from 2 to 9.
- .: wildcard, this matches one or more characters.
- !: wildcard, matches zero or more characters immediately.
- [1237-9]: matches any digit or letter in the brackets (in this example, 1,2,3,7,8,9)
- [a-z]: matches any lower-case letter
- [A-Z]: matches any Upper-case letter
- CID Pattern, if defined, calls that match with the Dial Pattern, will also need to have a matching CID number to place a call through this route. The CID number to take into consideration is the Internal CID not the External CID. You got the following options.
- X: The letter X or x represents a single digit from 0 to 9.
- Z: The letter Z or z represents any digit from 1 to 9.
- N: The letter N or n represents a single digit from 2 to 9.
- .: wildcard, this matches one or more characters.
- !: wildcard, matches zero or more characters immediately.
- [1237-9]: matches any digit or letter in the brackets (in this example, 1,2,3,7,8,9)
- [a-z]: matches any lower-case letter
- [A-Z]: matches any Upper-case letter
Be sure that the outbound routes you create allow you to dial the following types of calls:
- Emergency: Dedicate a route just for this purpose. Calls for emergency services should never be mangled by another dial pattern.
- Local: Calls to local numbers (usually NXXXXXXXXX).
- Toll-free: Calls to toll-free numbers (such as 1-888 or 1-800 numbers)
- Mobiles: Ensure that your outbound routes have been configured to handle calls to all mobile phone providers.
- International: Calls outside of the country, if permitted (usually 011)
- Special: Calls that do not fit any other category. This includes calls such as calls to the operator (0) and directory assistance (411)
- Long distance: Calls outside of the local calling area, if permitted (usually 1NXXXXXXXXX). Make sure that your outbound routes are designed to properly handle calls if you are using a dedicated provider for international calls.