I just started administering a CIX 670, and I'm trying to create a MC group which will ring external numbers (Cell phones, in most cases). Our usual procedure for handling cell phones is to create a Phantom DN on one of two dedicated "PhDN host stations", and configure forwarding there with #6011. This allows us to create an internal extension for a user that can ring their cell phone without taking up a physical port and phone.

Unfortunately, this procedure doesn't seem to work when the PhDN is a member of a Multiple Call Group; the call just rings the station on which the PhDN resides, regardless of forwarding configuration. Is there a better way to handle MC Group type functionality with external numbers? Maybe there's even a better way to handle the forwarding in the first place?

Thanks,
Brian

Possibly you can explain what the customer is trying to accomplish? Is it that the person who has an extension is not always at there desk but could be anywhere in or out of the office? Is it they are rarely in the office but instead of finding the person or not they want to transfer away to ring the extension and then go to the cell number?
Seems to me you are tying up a lot of resources, station ports, co ports, and causing a lot of ringing telephones needlessly.
Example> If I call for Bill who works for you someone answers my incoming call and transfers to a extension ringing it and then after so many rings it call forwards by grabbing a second line to conference together to Bill's cell phone and remains that way until the call is completed.
Once again you are asking for a MCG that will call multiple cell phones and I'm not sure that can be done by call forwarding, it can be accomplished in some ways using cascading via voicemail depending on voicemail type.

I'll try to state the goal a bit more effectively:

We have a number of employees that do not have a "home" in our main office. They have no cube/office, no desk, and no station. That aside, we still wish to give these employees DNs in our phone system, which will direct outgoing calls to their mobile phones. This has been working fine using external call forwarding configured on PhDNs.

Since we have managed to create forwarding entries for these employees, we have been asked to create a single internal DN that, when called, will ring the mobile phones of multiple employees who have no physical station in our office.

I don't believe that is a possibility on the CIX670

Ringing is not the same as forwarding. The only thing that can ring in a multiple call group is local extensions. All station forwarding is completely ignored, and with good reason. Imagine if a sales group of 15 phones suddenly stopped working because one person put their phone on DND when they left the office.

If you put Phantom DNs in a multiple call group, only the owner of the phantom DNs will ring.If you have a phantom on 5 extensions, only one will ring, the owner of that phantom.

If you have multiple CIX systems networked together, only local extensions will work.

You could do something if you had a new IPEdge voicemail system. I hate to sound like a sales person for your local Toshiba dealer, but maybe if this is an important feature you could look into this.

Thank you very much for your time and input.