We installed an IPxOffice for about a dozen digital extensions and 85 analog extensions (use IPx500 expansion cabinet which works with the Office). We own a residential facility, so the analog extensions are for our residents to use with whatever phone they want. Our phones lines comes from a PRI, and I am the end user who works very very close with my installer (yup, I'm one of "those" clients, but at the end of the day I've given my tech $150k in business in a couple of years, and I really like him, so he doesn't mind it).

OK, so, our residents are elderly so I want their phone lines to emulate what they'd get from Verizon or Qwest, almost PERFECTLY. I don't want them dialing "9" to get an outside line, and I don't want them to ever hit their flash button to check voicemail or weird things. They don't ever need to dial any internal extensions EXCEPT to check their voicemail. And, I'd like the voicemail indicator to be a stutter dialtone when they pickup (like my Verizon line at home).

It all sounds doable, but we're having a heck of a time with it. Since I don't want them to dial 9 to get a line, we set the analog extensions to auto-grab a line. Problem there is once you've auto-grabbed a line you can no longer hear any stutter dialtone if you have a voicemail, since the stutter only happens with the system dialtone. Second problem is that you can no longer dial the extension of the voicemail.

I tried to overcome this by scrapping the stutter dialtone and just giving our resident message waiting indicators; but unfortunately there are NONE that will work well that I've found for less than $15/per. If we found a way to work out a decent MWI, then I thought we could get over the second issue (can't internally call voicemail) by having them dial a DID (we have plenty) that went directly to the voicemail; problem there is that the CID digits of the extension don't pass through in the same way when the call is technically external, so the residents would have to call it, then enter in their extension number, and THEN the password.... NO GOOD, these are elderly residents and that just wouldn't work. My tech is working to find an override for the auto-grab line feature or something, so if they dial "*1234" or something it would NOT make an outside call and would instead make an internal call to voicemail which would of course pass the digits through correctly. No luck there yet, however, and even if he did work it out I'm still stuck without a message indicator.

My last idea that I don't know if its possible is to disable the auto-grab feature and instead let them hear the system dialtone, thereby allowing the stutter dialtone to work brilliantly if they have a voicemail. Next step would be to ADD the digit "9" in front of any string of numbers dialed except for the extension of the voicemail (which digits would be a string that would never be dialed during an attempt to make an outside call). Any ideas if this is possible? Or, any ideas what else might work? I'm going over this with my tech tomorrow, but regardless would like to get some ideas from you all about what else should work.

Tadiran techs have helped a lot for some other issues we ran up against, but they just can't find a workaround for this, except to have the auto-grab line feature delay for 2 seconds, allowing the resident to hear a stutter dialtone if one existed. Problem there is for the rare resident who dials fast BEFORE the auto-dial, or the slow resident who doesn't get the phone to his/her ear before the stutter stops. We bought this system for lots of reasons, and one was hearing the Tadiran rep say from his own mouth that stutter dialtone was possible, and auto-grab a line was possible, but unfortunately the dude didn't tell me that they WEREN'T possible when used together.

Please Help!

You want something that isn't possible. Think about this logically for a second. When you dial an access code for an outside line you grab outside dialtone or lcr dial tone depending on how you are setup. If you set to grab "9" you bypass the slt dial tone for outside tone. There are phones from cortelco that have MWI indication and caller ID. I would say scrap the idea of not dialing a 9. People do this every day and why would you not allow them to call internally for no charge? This would also allow you to use the advanced 911 features of the PBX and what not. You are making a mountain out of a molehill IMHO when most people have experienced dialing a 9.

Just my 2 cents and a ton of retirement communities under my belt.

Did you ask if they were possible together? For the reasons that Coral Tech stated most people would not assume they would be used together...as it is not possible. I do not see the rep misleading you, the appropriate question you were thinking, but did not say, was never asked. Fortunately this is not a problem with just Tadiran, it would be a problem with any system.

We have around 20 assisted living facilities with their residents on the system, and they all dial 9 for an outside line. Most people are used to it in these days, and you can still program it so that they do not have to dial 9-911 in an emergency.

Steve

I agree with Coral Tech and tampasteve - it is better to dial 9.
But if you want to get outside line without dialing 9, you can try public libraries (assuming that your internal number plan and outside number plan are not crossing).
Or, maybe, you can use network programming...depending on how your system sizes are programmed. But libraries are better...saying nothing about dialing 9

Man you guys are quick to respond - the sign of a great forum! Thank you for your comments. I understand that getting stutter tone on an outside line just won't work, but what about the caller hearing the system dialtone when they pickup, but have the system add the digit "9" to the beginning of any numbers dialed (ie it auto-grabs an outside line, but not until they try to place a call, so they'd actually hear the stutter system dialtone if they had a voicemail up until they dialed a number)? I'd hoped that this could be done with a PRI which is what we have (and the first I've ever played with).

I guess if I can't work it out, I'll have to break down an have them dial "9". See, our residents are not typical assisted living residents; we specialize in much higher care including Alzheimer's and Dementia. While you may ask "why would they need a phone?", many are still high functioning enough to use and want a phone, but perhaps not enough to use it if its any different then the phone they've used all their life (ie no "9"). These are the residents I'm trying to serve here. When I'd put the question to the Tadiran sales guy, I had phrased it together making it clear that I wanted SLTs to perfectly emulate a standard land line, specifically stating that I wanted auto-grabbing and stutter dialtone. Even my tech made the comment that he was surprised the sales guy said it was possible. Clearly the guy misunderstood, and altogether we've been VERY pleased with the IPx (I've purchased 3 more of them for other locations), if I can ONLY get over this issue then I'll have no complaints whatsoever. Also, I am definitely going to look into cortelco, as I've had miserable luck finding a phone I could just issue them that would have an MWI.

Perhaps a solution for some clients would be to have a answering machine instead of using the Tadiran VMail? Just an option, and they likely are used to answering machines anyway...

Steve

Just use the 90v lamping with stutter and you have both worlds. The only other option...here is an idea, I assume you have to dial 11 digits 1+ area code right? Make dial access 1 your trunk acess key (if extensions don't conflict)then build an nxx with 10 digits in your ARS to put a 1 at the beginning. Then create a public library 911 for dialing 911.

Unfortunately I don't know your outside dialing rules in USA, but in Belarus outside dialing without prefix works fine.
For example, in Minsk city we have 7-digits local numbers beginning from 2, 3, 5 (i.e. 2xx-xx-xx, 3xx-xx-xx, 5xx-xx-xx). I program LCR which may have any dial number (9, 7080 or so), then in LCR,5 program outside numbering plan. Then I make public or private libraries 2, 3, 5, which contain strings like these:
DIAL NUM 2 (or 3, or 5).
OUT_TK (SPECIFIC_TK) 7080.
User lifts handset, hears station dialtone (usual or stutter), dials outside local number 2xx-xx-xx. Coral sees the first digit is lib number, and automatically sends it into Routing Access 7080. After receiving from user all digits according to LCR, 5 numbering plan Coral sends all the number to specified trunk group.
In such way you can perform outside dialing without prefix and listen station dialtone after lifting handset (and dial internal number of their mail, if you need so).
I beg your pardon for such a big post, maybe I don't understand your problem clear (English is not my native language, of course, and I have never dealed with American telephone standards).
Anyway, I hope my post may be useful in some way.

Muter, that seems like it'd work in our situation, however the dozen digital extensions for our management staff need to use internal extensions that start with the same number as local 7-digit numbers (there's a reason we can't re-number). If we could build a library specific to JUST the resident's SLTs then I think your solution would work perfectly. However, as I understand it, a library is a library, and we can't class out the SLT extensions to use different libraries than the digital management staff extensions. Any other thoughts along those lines?

Did you look at my suggestion about 1+ dialing?

I did, but even though the PRI provider (XO) says they deliver 10 digit dialing, they actually can do 7 digit dialing, but without the guarantee that new prefixes will be added to the tables right away. Since new prefixes are not very common here, our staff all do 7 digit dialing anyway, as do residents. Also, our numbering system at this location begins with 1, and can't be renumbered without messing with our numbering systems at our other facilities.
I think we're so close!!

Well, ConsumerTy, if your internal and outside numbers are crossing, Coral can differentiate local numbers and internal numbers beginning from the same digits. For example, by specific programming LCR, 5 you can make Coral dial outside number 2xx-xx-xx without prefix and - at the same time - dial internal number 2x-xx and so on.
The only inconvenience is that after dialing 2x-xx (internal number) Coral will wait interdogit timer (default, as I remember, 10 s). If user dials other digits, this call is outside, if no other digits received, thi call is internal.