Mitel 5000 - Delay, Click and MOH before ringing/answer

[ektar]

I apologize if this has been asked before but I have done a google search and searched these forums but have yet to find anything directly related to this issue. Here is what we've got and what is happening:

We have a Mitel 5000 behind a Comcast telephony modem (Arris TM604G/CT) and there is an external MOH device (a spectrio box) attached to the MOH jack on the Mitel.

Whenever you call the system, as the caller, you gets a bit of a delay, then a "soft" click, and then some MOH (about a quarter of second) before you finally hear the ringing tone/sound. When I connect a phone directly to the telephony modem and call in it sounds normal (the ring tone/sound occurs almost immediately). I've also tested it with the MOH device turned off and unplugged and in both cases there is a delay and the soft click, but no MOH.

Any ideas why this is happening?

[dwayneg]

On the 5000 you have lots of choices about what a caller hears (Ring back or MOH).  I have a feeling that at some point in the path of the call it goes through a device flagged to provide MOH when call is on hold, and when one device transfers to another the call always goes to hold briefly.  You don't tell me a lot about how the call gets to the eventual ring destination but I suspect it's passing through an application (time based routing or auto attendant, perhaps?).  In troubleshooting I'd start by changing ring in destination for the CO trunk group to a single station, see if music disappears.  If so, then back up a step at a time until you hear the music...the last device you added to the path is the problem.  Just fix the MOH flag to NONE or RINGBACK there and you're fixed.

[ektar]

Thanks for the ideas! I tried changing the MOH and "Audio on..." settings for the CO trunk but it was the same as if I were to have just turned off the MOH device.

I'm actually thinking it doesn't have anything to do with MOH, as even without it there is still a noticeable delay between the first "ring" and the second "ring" (when it actually rings in the office). To explain it better, when you call there are two (or sometimes 3) rings. Then it sounds like someone has picked up (what I called a "soft click") then a short delay. During that short delay if the MOH is activate you hear music, if not it's just silent. Then it finally rings again until someone physically picks up the line up.

About the eventual ring destination, the calls ring 10 stations at the same time (perhaps that wasn't set up properly in the first place?). I'll try your other suggestion of changing the trunk group to a single station and add the other stations one by one, but I'll have to wait until later as the lines are being used at the moment.

Thanks so much for the help!

[dwayneg]

I'm pretty sure you'll find that your CO trunk connection is ringing into a device such as an auto attendant before going to the final destination...it may not say anything, but it either provides day/night scheduling or listens for DTMF for routing.  Regardless, this is the device you need to fix hold music setting on, change to RING.
When the call finally rings stations, what does the second line of the display say?  Maybe XFR FROM or FWD FROM?  If so, that's the name of the device you're interested in.  Warning: call may pass through more than one device as it progresses, and any of those might be flagged for hold music.

[ektar]

Thanks so much. Just like you said, it was setup to ring through an auto attendant (voice processing application) before going through. For some reason the company that installed the system set it up to ring through that application but neglected to set up the recording or any other thing that would have made it more obvious. It would timeout immediately and forward to the correct extension.

Again, thanks!

[dwayneg]

A couple of possible reasons it might be there: It could be there to capture some DTMF digits sent by carrier...if so, you should see "Transfer to collected extension" in the digit translation table.  Another possibility, one I used on all my installs, is that they might have reserved that app for emergency announcements (closed for snow, etc.).  With that in place in advance a user can call from home and add the appropriate recording.