sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Nortel Telephones & Systems Suppressing "9" on Centrex Lines

Client presently has POTS lines & apparently decided to change for Centrex lines.

He called today to tell me about this and that the cut over will be at midnight and were told by Bell to have me come in and reprogram their system so that they would not have to dial "9" when dialing outside calls before the 10 digit local number.

I told him Bell is full of something as the suppression is done in the CO (DMS switch), not locally.

I just called the Bell Saleswoman & she swears that it's done on the local equipment, unless it was a "Local Link" package (which are Centrex lines) & that's not what the client had ordered.

This is a Compact 6x16 DR5 and I can't find any way to do it locally. I even checked a CICS manual...no dice.

I've always had it done at the CO before. One of my lines in Local Link with suppression. I also have a client's line here that is Centrex and "9" is not suppressed. Didn't request it at the time as it was installed here as a "closet jack" only to forward a very old number to his new address where he couldn't have it installed.

So who's wrong?

I think it is safe to say who is wrong, but that's beside the point. We have Centrex "Custo-Pak" service here through Verizon that offers Centrex features without having to dial 9 for up to 30 lines. That sounds like your Bell's "Local Link". It can be done through a DMS, ESS or ESWD with no problem.

Can't you just program LCR in the DR5 to insert the 9 for you? That might be easier than dealing with Bell.

Unfortunately the 616 doesn't have routing service and can't dial the 9. There are ways to insert it on CICS/MICS.

It is possible to suppress the Centrex 9 at Bell, but thanks to CRTC they can't. Centrex service is designed (and CRTC approved) to provide a virtual PBX. They charge for the line to the desk top and the PSTN seperately. That way you can have any number of lines in your virtual system (dialing between sets... 4 digit DN's) and limit the number of "outside" calls by only buying a few PSTN's.

Local Link is Centrex with 1 for 1 line to PSTN ratio. There is no set to set calling and therefore no need for the "9". Time was you needed Centrex to do 3 way calling and link transfers. With all the Centrex features offered in Local Link, Centrex is obsolete.

Get the customer to subscribe to Local Link. Same features with 9 suppressed.

So to answer your question... who's right... you both are.

Thanks guys. That answers the question. Client has been briefed and according to him there is enough of a difference to warrant staying with pure Centrex as opposed to local Link lines.

Sounds like they have the lines appearing on the phones. An option would be to put a "line pool" button on the phone. You don't use the feature for line pool, but this will grab a line and bury the 9. Press feature *1, enter line pool code (i.e. 9) and then enter the centrex code of 9. Hope this works for you.

Marv:

They refer to the PSTN links here at "NARS" on Centrex accounts originally established by GTE in their DMS switches. I thought that this was a local thing, but I guess not. We never stop learning, do we?

Lines ARE appearing. I fail to see what putting the line pool button on the phone will do if you don't use it and you don't need to...I just tried tried it here.

What you suggest will work, but only if:
a) I talk them into using pools.
b) I set the Prime Line to Pool A, for each Tel
c) Make sure all ext's have 2 I/C's
d) Client isn't too use to "paging Johnny to pick up line 3" for example, if I remove the lines
e) Some clients who do a lot of internal dialing may not like that if they prefer to have Prime set to Internal.

I guess it's like most things in life, a choice of TWO, Take it or Leave it. I'll visit them early tomorrow before they reprogram their speed dial buttons and they can choose on a one by one basis.

Thanks.

It was just a suggestion Dave. I guess your only choice is to press a line, enter 9, then dial your phone number. Why press a button two times before entering the phone number, but that's your choice.

It was a good suggestion.

I met witrh the two principal parties early Friday am. I had already placed these lines in a pool a few years ago so that was out of the equation with this client.

I explained their options and showed them how it could work, but they do a lot of internal dialing as well, so in the end they opted to just tell everyone to dial the "9".

If this had been a new system install they would have bought the idea 100 % as they'd all have to learn how to work it.

The kicker in this, is he had just got off the phone with Bell before I got there. Bell hadn't re-set up the cascade as it was before. Bell told them if Bell did it, there would be a charge. If they had me do it, no charge. Makes me go "Hmmmm, sounds like Local Link to me". Also nice that Bell thinks I work for FREE.