911 and Long Distance

[lrzuniga]

Hi,

Full disclosure, I am NOT a telephony guy, I am a tech support guy who is in charge of the phones (Mitel 3300) so be gentle with the n00b

Issue:

Users dial 9 to get an external line for local or long distance calls. I've had a few people dial 9-11 by mistake to make an overseas call...which is not what they intended.

I've been asked to either remove 9 as a leading digit or change to 8.

I'd prefer people pay attention to how they dial but watchagonnado

Question: is it possible to disable 9 for dialing out for local or long distance? If so, is it an involved process?

Or, is there a better way to handle this situation?

Any help is appreciated

Luis

[ralph]

You can easily solve this problem by creating a system speed dial of 911* (that's a * and not a wildcard).
Point the speed dial to any number.  Doesn't matter where.  I'd suggest voice mail.

Here's a link explaining why this works.
http://www.mitelforums.com/articles/how-to-stop-accidental-911-calls.php

Ralph

[lrzuniga]

Sweet!

Before I make the change, I'll have to make sure that the system has 911 and 9911 programmed...also how to do that

But big help ralph!

Thanks

Luis

[ralph]

Look first in ARS Digits dialed.  You should see either 911 or 9911 or both in there.
If you only see one of them then look in system speed dials form for the other one.
If you don't see that there then add 9911 -->911.  Tick override toll control.

Ralph

[lrzuniga]

Indeed I do see them (screen cap attached)

So I assume all I have to do is add the 911* and point it to an unused extension (maybe with a message saying "YOU DIALED 911")

If I understand correctly dialing 911 plus any other digits will be forwarded to this, but if someone JUST dials 911 or 9911 without more digits they call WILL go to emergency services 911?

Thanks again for the help.

Luis

[acejavelin]

I don't know the law where you live, but in many areas in the US it is a requirement that people be able to dial 911 without an outside access code (or 112/999 in various parts of the world too), failure to have that ability can cause them fail fire/safety inspections and possibly even be fined.

Best to double check the legality of disabling 911 just in case.

We typically use 8+ for all outbound traffic these days, can't remember the last time I used 9 for outgoing access in the last 2 or so years, but we still program rules for 911/9911 (or 999/9999 or 112/9112 if applicable) just in case of panic emergency calls.

[ralph]

Ace,
That doesn't disable 911.  It stops people from dialing 911555-666-7777.

Ralph

[acejavelin]

Ace,
That doesn't disable 911.  It stops people from dialing 911555-666-7777.

Ralph

Yes, but the lrzuniga mentioned routing 911* to a recording that says "you dialed 911"...

and as I typed this and re-read what the user posted, I realized that was going on. My bad, I jumped the gun a little... Sorry.

[VinceWhirlwind]

So what's going on here is that you can use System Speed Dials to deal with digit conflicts.
 
Very interesting.

[ralph]

Almost.  We're using a dialing conflict to stop accidental 911 calls.  We just happen to be using a system speed dial to do it.

Ralph

[lrzuniga]

Thanks all for the information!

Just one clarification request, is it possible to remove the need to dial '9' to get an outside line?

If it is Im imagining it is a fair amount of work to reconfigure extensions, etc.

Thanks!

L.

[ralph]

Sure.  There's been a debate as to if this should be done, though.

To do it, in your ARS digits dialed, add 1 +10 digits to follow.  Select a digit mod number that doesn't absorb 1.

If you have extension numbers starting with a 1 it will create a digit conflict.  That will cause a delay between dialing the extension number and when it rings.

Ralph

[x-man]

I did it by using digit mod to add the 9 automatically so in ARS its 1+10 the same as Ralph said but then the digit mod adds the 9. This way you can still dial a 9 and create a route for that as well. So you can use either method.same for long distance and international.   Doubles up on the ars but its really not that much work.