atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Mobile Phones & Devices Dial by Name Directory

a customer said something to me today while programing their dial by name directory, for more & more people calling in to a pbx from a pda like a black berry it can't work, the blackberry doesn't have abc on key 2 so if you are calling in to a pbx from a pda there no point asking the caller to enter the first 3 digits of the persons last name..........it dosen't work anymore..........

Unless I missed something the letters on the dial have nothing to do with the tones generated by the dial pad!

Should work if the dial will generate tone after connected, and I think most do. Let us know if we are missing something.

Mike

Avalon is saying that there are no letters above the number 2 key. So, the caller might not be able to figure out how to dial the name.

what i was trying to say was if you are driving down the NJ turnpike at 100mph and the pbx you are calling asks you to enter the first 3 letters of the persons last name, unless you have a conventional cell phone with the 3 letters on each number key, you aren't going to be able to work it out......

more & more people using blackberry's means dial by name directory asking to spell the persons name will become obsolete........

If the blackberry is like the treo, you can pull up a conventional keypad on the screen and then enter the correct letters.

OK, I can not answer the question for a Black Berry, but I must ask my own couple of questions here.

"if you are driving down the NJ turnpike at 100mph", what the heck are you doing making a phone call any way. (OK, maybe you have a Blue Tooth and a Screen on your dash, but still.)

Also, what part of the NJ turnpike can you drive 100 MPH on any way?

The few times I have been on it, 55 was as fast as we could go.

I have come across the problem of people trying to use their built in keyboards on their cell phones to use the Dial-By-Name. That's a fun one to figure out what's happening. Those little keys don't generate DTMF... so no... you're not going to connect.

Rather the keys have the letters or not pressing the 2 button will still send a tone representing the abc. If the person with a BB isn't smart enough to figure that out they shouldn't be using a BB.

Create a special menu branch just for BB users. Something like this, if you are using a BB press 7, then send them to an info mailbox that tells them to pull over at nearest phone booth and drop in a quarter to use a real phone to complete your call.

The original problem was that the dial by name does not work with the Blackberry. OK now we have established that it does in fact work, however the Blackberry does not have the letters on the keypad. This might very well be an oversight on Blackberrys part. Good luck getting them to change that.

Don't drive and text, at least not when your driving 100mph.

Mike

IMO dial-by-name directories are useless anyway. Anything that requires the use of the letters on a keypad (like 1800-MATTRESS)is a big PITA because no one is familiar with the letters like they are with the numbers. I'm sure that's why Blackberry eliminated them. Another problem is dial-by-name assumes you know how to spell someones name. Doesn't work real well unless you have a bunch of John Smiths.

-Hal

Dial by name directories are also a waste of time because most people out there know zero will take them to the receptionist anyway.......

Hijack

Dialing zero won't always get you the operator. I had 2 law offices merge into one location and an AA was created offering 1 for Johnson Law & 2 for Smith Law. Calls would be directed to receptionist(X100) or receptionist(X101) in theory. Pressing zero would take the call to X-100. The receptionist at X-100 got tired of one particular caller that refused to select 1 or 2 so she ask me to provide a solution to break her of that habit.

We redefined the zero extension as an info mailbox that delivered the call back to the main greeting after playing this message:

Pressing ZERO was not an option offered. Your call will now be redirected so you can make another selection. THANK YOU

Problem Solved! You gotta love getting slapped around by an inanimate object! :rofl:

John, I'm having problems at home because I want to change the answering machine to say press 1 for English and 2 for Spanish. 1 gives you the standard 'Thanks for calling the... yadayadayada, in English. 2 gives you a recording, in Spanish, to 'Please hang up and call back when you are fluent in English'. My older daughter thinks it's anti-social. I don't care to socialize with people I cannot have a conversation with. My wife thinks it's stupid. Maybe so, but she married me. And besides, no one here speaks Spanish fluently, anyway. My son thinks it's funny. Yeah, I suppose you could draw that conclusion. I tried how about 'Call back when you have entered the United States legally', and that didn't fly either. So, for now the announcement remains unchanged. John C.

Actually you can use the Blackberry to dial thru the directory. Simply press and hold the "Alt" button while pressing the letters you want, the proper touch tones will be generated.

This does NOT work on any of the Windows Mobile phones that I have tried, only Blackberry (once again they are number 1 for a reason). I had a blackberry for years and then decided to upgrade to the Motorola Q, after 6 month I gave it back and restarted my old blackberry, there is no comparison.