sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers Call trace on PRI

We are in the process of moving to a new system that will be running a Cisco UC560 off of a PRI.

Part of that system will include our crisis call centre. Currently if they receive a caller that is actively suicidal and hangs up they dial *57 and initiate a trace. While dialing 911 on another line. The current system is run off analog lines.

I am now being told that this function possibly/probably does not work on a PRI.

We cannot be the only agency that uses a PRI and needs to initiate traces.

So how does tracing work with a PRI, can it be done? If so any ideas on where to look to help my vendor along?

Thanks

I don't see how it would work on a PRI. Hopefully one of the switch techs chime in here.

I wonder if the system itself can do it. It has to track the channels calls are coming in on so it should be able to gather that info to pass along.

hmmm guess I have more reading to do.

If you have caller id inbound, most cost accounting programs track inbound call info- that's how abandoned call redial works. There is probably something in your documentation regarding this.

We do work for the PA State police. They have lines provided by Verizon. It does not matter if the calling party has their CID blocked, the number is available. We switched them over from POTS to PRI and they still have this service. The state does their own LEC work, so I don't know if this is something that is made available or if it is just available for law enforcement. Their TEAC voice recorders have a device on them that encodes the calling number along with the voice recording. If you are a government agency, I'm sure you can get some kind of service that will provide you what is needed.

Rcaman

Call trace? Or do you simply mean obtaining the caller Id?

One thing you may be able to do is route your calls through an 800 service, for the most part they are required to present calling party ID by way of ANI. Of course this will cost you on all inbound calls.

Call Trace is not the same as Caller ID. This is a Central Office feature, not a PBX function.

You need to ask your carrier.

We do have inbound caller ID, most calls also come in on a 1-800#. Its the people that call in with CID blocked and usually state something like "I am going to kill myself" and then hang up.

If the workers see caller ID info they will pass that along to the Police. If the CID is blocked then they currently use the *57 option and then call the Police on another line.

This is not an every day or even every month thing, but when it happens the staff need to be able to help the Police find the person in need of assistance.

We have asked our carrier they are the ones telling me they are not sure if it will work as it currently does, as they themselves are not sure. (Lets leave the vendor of choice out of this one)

I am just looking to find out if this feature is out there and what I can point my vendor to look into.

I know I should not have to point my vendor anywhere, but it seems that its about the only way to get anything done!

Thanks for the tips on the call accounting on the system itself, I will look into that.

Since *57 is a switch feature I would think there would be a way they could make it work. A switch is a switch and the features are there. The only problem I see is with analog you're dialing *57 on the same line that the call came in on, on your Pri you're going to have to be able to grab the same line. So you'll have to have a way to identify the incoming line and a way to select the same outgoing for the trace. If your Pri is split inbound and outbound it won't work, they would all have to be two way. This is all my opinion, I understand switching, but I'm no CO tech. We have a few on the board, hope they will respond.

I'd say get a T1 instead, because the lines can be broken out 1 through 24, BUT. Most LECs will not provide CID over T1. Why? I don't know why, it will work, if the CPE is capable of it. Mitel is, or was.
The C.O. just has to provision 24 lines as loop start, Touch Tone, CID. The put them on a T1 and send them to you.