We are currently using INFORM PC with the smdr / Mitel SX-200. The Mitel is set with no answer supervision on the trunks. Mitel support has told the techs that this is the way it should be, as some CO's do not send back answer supervision. I have not heard of this. They instead have a 30 second grace period before the smdr starts tracking. This means a guest could call leave a message and never get billed for the long distance call in the hotel. I am sure that there is a better way to do this. Any suggestions would be helpful. I say keep answer supervision set. Thank you in advance.

If you set answer supervision to yes and none is returned the audio will not cut through so both parties can hear each other/or the dialed digits may not be sent out at all . It has been years since I worked on one but I seem to recall a cos option to log smdr on short calls . But I maybe thinking of another old system so don't hold that as gospel . Plus there are various other intermitten issue it will cause depending on the type of trunks installed .

Just to add a side note . The reason Mitel had the 30 second default timer was so Hotel guests would not be billed for RNA outbound calls . I know if I tried calling my family and let it ring 5 times and then hung up , I would not be expecting a bill for that call . Even though I did tie up one of the system Trunks for about 20 seconds .

As an additional side note . With the advent of inexpensive nation wide cellular prices . I would think most people would use their cellular to call home or where ever , knowing that most hotel/motel call accounting systems have a built in Sur charge above the local LD caling rates .

One solution would be to go to Ground-Start trunks. A ground-start gives a more positive indication for answer supervision. Otherwise, you'll need to tweak the pseudo-answer timer that OBTW was talking about, and you may get angry guests.

Also, if you try it with a stopwatch, you'll find that it's tough to ring 4x and leave a message in less than 30 seconds.

Which SX-200 is this? Does it look more like a refrigerator, a bunch of matching PCs, or a microwave oven? What lightware?

The mitel smdr record is generated from the moment the trunk is seized. I also know from programming inn-forms that they have a grace period for calls. An easy test is to hook up a terminal to the smdr port and make calls less than 30 seconds and verify the data. And like OBTW says the reason for the grace period is to not bill for non completed calls.

The Mitel SX-200 They look like microwaves stacked. We have Pri T1's that carry the traffic. I don't understand why the 30 second grace period needs to be used if we are getting a answer supv. back from each CO. How can we start the smdr record once the call has been connected and not once the trunk is seized? I also work on the Siemens 9006 hicom with Infortel for windows. We bill on the far end connect not on a grace period or trunk seizure. Any suggestions on the Mitel / Innform what can be done? Too many calls are being made during the 30 second grace period and connecting. We see the bill for the connect of course, but the graced period keeps it from logging. Thank you in advance.
Kevin

If you've got PRI, you've got positive answer supervsion. I used to work for a call accounting service bureau, and we required supervision and exact time reporting on t1 and PRI trunks.

Yes PRI's are great. So we should be able to set the answer supv. in the Mitel and get rid of the 30 second grace period?

Yes. I don't know how to change it (unfortunately) as we've always had vendors do it for us. Typically the raw SMDR record will change from xNNN to aNNN for the 'supervision' flag, or on some versions the trunk will stay the same (xNNN) but a A supervision flag will show up in the characters shortly preceeding the trunk number.

Ok will give it a shot. Thank you

So with the supervision flag set to on, the SMDR will not start until it sees a connection, or does the Mitel still look at the seizure of the trunk and then start SMDR?

The smdr record for the mitel is always generated from the time the trunk was seized. With supervision enabled in the trunk descriptor, the record will place an A in column 60 if answer supervision is received.

Ok if the record is generated from the trunk seizure and the A is placed in column 60, what record would be sent to the InnForm? For example if someone calls and the phone rings 10 times: the distant end finally answers, and they talk for 30 seconds. What will be the total time of the call to be billed by InnForm?

As stated the duration is from the time the trunk was seized.

Thank you again. What is the best of preferred way using the Mitel and the InnForm software to get accurate records? If the actuall call is only 1 minute but the trunk was seized for lets say 1 minute 15 seconds which includes the ring back time. Does the guest still get billed for 1 minute 15 seconds?

FWIW,

Usually the defaults are used, i.e. 30 second grace period on LD calls, flat or free local. If you find from examination of your bills that an excessive number of calls are billed for less than the 30 second g.p., you can lessen it. But like OBTW said, most will use their cell phones. True costs of operation should be reflected in the room cost not the phone bill.

I have a problem
Site : Egypt
The mitel smdr record isn't generated from the moment the trunk is seized ma be after 40 second from the moment is seized or more
some times no duration in smdr logs but date and time and extension and external number appear and the call succeed

Mohamed,

It might have been better to start a new thread - what kind of Mitel do you have?

If you are using PRI's, you get answer supervision. Analog trunks don't really provide that. T1's can, and most will, but that is really carrier and CO dependant. PRI's must as part of the spec.