sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Nortel Telephones & Systems Nortel MICS PRI Call Forwarding

Hello gang,

I am looking for some help for a client of mine.
I don't have much experience with Nortel systems,
we only sell ESI, so I am at a loss as to where
to turn in this situation.

I have a client who we do a lot of computer work
for, and I have somehow been put in charge of
this problem.

They have a Nortel MICS system, with a PRI. They
recently moved their office from Ohio to Michigan
but had PRI service in both locations.

In Ohio, they had a full PRI with AT&T, and had
no issues. I should note that AT&T sold them
the system initially and set it up.

In moving to Michigan, they had installed an
"integrated" PRI with LDMI (Talk America) where
the first 12 channels of the PRI are voice, and
the remainder are used for Internet access.

This all works fine except in one circumstance.

If a user forwards his office extension to his
cell phone, calls do not complete. The caller
hears a recording that says "The area code or
number as dialed is not valid." Calls from this
users extension to his cell phone are long
distance.

If the user picks up his phone and dials his
cell phone, the call completes without issue,
so it has something to do with how the Nortel
is sending out caller ID on forwarded calls.

I know that my ESI system has something called
"intelligent call forwarding (a misnomer if there
ever was one)" where the ESI system attempts to
send the CID of the calling party off to the
cell phone, so the user can decide if they
want to accept the call. I had to turn this off
on the ESI system for our off site call
forwarding to work properly. I don't know if
the Nortel has something similar.

The phone vendor they are using seems quite
skilled, but keeps pointing at LDMI as the
culprit. LDMI of course says everything is set
up fine on their end, since users can dial the
calls as regular long distance calls, it is only
forwarded from extensions where the calls
fail. I tend to agree with LDMI in this instance
(yes, I know... *GASP!*)

Anyway, can someone point me to some things that
might need tweaked in the Nortel? As I understand
things, it is the voicemail system that sends
the calls out... Perhaps there is an outbound
caller ID setting there that isn't set up right?
I am suspecting LDMI is dropping the calls
because of a caller ID mismatch, but getting
them to actually put a clueful switch tech on
the phone who can trap calls is very difficult.

Any advice you can offer would really help!

Tom Fox

External forwarding on MICs is done in one of three ways.

Line redirect or Call forwarding both at the set level or redirection in the voice mail (caller must press 7).

In all cases the user must enter the phone number to which he is forwarding. Have them try with or without the putting the 1 in front of the number.

The system uses routing and destination codes. If something has changed at the carrier an adjustment in the destination code and number of absorbed digits in the dialing string might be required.

I don't believe CID has anything to do with this.

Please post the exact sequence users use while forwarding their phones.

~r

Per the user, they do the following:
Press “Feature”
Press the number “Four”
Press the number “Nine”
Press the number “One”
Press area code and phone number of the number you want calls forwarded to
Press “OK”

They have tried both with and without the 1
in front of the number.

How do the users make a regular outbound call? Is it simply a "9" plus the number?

What software?

It is very importent to know what software release you are using. If its Rel.7.0 then you have to listen if there is dial tone after customer presses 9. If this is the case make a second dial tone option off. If there is no second dial tone then the system outpulsing number after 9 to fast and carrier is not ready and missing digits. has to be clear channel signaling to make forwarding call go smoothly.

Possibly, you need to place a "pause" or two between the "9" and the "1" to give the system time to selct a line.

Dave

What is the best way to determine the software version?

I will check tomorrow morning on the other questions you guys asked.

Thanks for all the help so far!

Tom

Oh, and yes. The normal process is 9+number to dial a call.