I have a customer that currently has an analog Talk Path voice mail system that has 4 incoming lines. It has approximately 350 users that a caller can leave a message and they check the message remotely. They no longer want this.

They now want a caller to dial one of the 350 mailbox's and transfer off-net to a cell phone. My thought is to install a MBX-300 with virtual ext.'s that are off-net forwarded. They will need to be able to change the directory name and outdial numbers regularly, therefore they will have to have the web browser access.

My question is... Is there a better way to accomplish this that I am not thinking of? I realize it needs to be a trunk to trunk transfer doing it this way, which is fine. I know the MBX 300 has 324 virtual ext.'s.(I can add an analog station card to give them the additional stations (348).

Any thought's would be appreciated.

I assume you'll be using a PRI? Will the PRI be able to push the incoming CID to the cell phones?

As an alternative, you could utilize an Asterisk based server (pick your flavor) in a data center using SIP trunks. If you're familiar with any of the FreePBX type software, it would be a fairly easy task.

I don't see why it wouldn't work as you're describing, but you'll really want to be able to push the caller ID to the cell.

If you have TelCo call transfer, you can create a command file with the CO flash command and use it to make any Talkpath mailbox become a call transfer mailbox. I have done this for years and use the mailbox notification field to become the number to transfer to. If you have a PRI, then you program a T2T instead and just expect to use two channels for the call duration.

The only drawback for you is that you would need a dial up modem to change the subscriber name field.

Thanks for the reply guy's. No PRI will be used. This is for a customer that only has access to 4 incoming loop start lines that the carrier provides and I am told it is coming from an Option 11 system, so I doubt "telco call transfer" will be an option. I realize it will take 2 ports per call, which apparently isn't a problem as these lines are not used a great deal. In a worst case scenario I could add up to 4 more co lines if needed.

Dave, I'm not sure how the process would work with your idea of the command prompt. Would I have to enter a command prompt for each mailbox? Where do I create the command prompt? Keep in mind, the end user will need to change cell phone numbers and directory names on a regular basis for around 350 users.

If you have time and would rather email the process to me I would appreciate it. I would like to test the idea in-house first. Thanks

Don, I just send you a PM.