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Outbound Calling HOW TO

Do you find yourself asking the question “why doesn't my call work?” You may even be able to see your call in the SIPTRUNK.com CDR page! Still you struggle with comprehending why your outbound call doesn't work. Perhaps you even see the cryptic “FAILED” message in your CDR; and you find yourself saying, “What does it mean?” If any of these statements apply to you, then this document may provide some relief.

 

The first thing to understand about our product is that there are four types of calls:

 

1. US 48 and Canada Calls (This does not include the Northwest Territory) of Canada

2. US 50 and Canada Calls (You are charged per minute for calling to Hawaii and Alaska)

3. Default International Calls (International calls are charged per minute)

4. Blacklisted International Calls (Do you really need to call North Korea?)

 

We will discuss all of these call types in depth throughout this post.

 

Some terminology that will be helpful:

 

North American Calling = U.S., Canada, Caribbean

 

International Calling = Most calls not covered by “North American Calling”

 

X = Any Number

 

N = Any number 2-9

 

. = Any number and any amount of numbers, but at least 1 number

 

! = Anything

 

Prepend = Add a number onto what was dialed

 

Prefix = This is allowed to be dialed, but take off these digits

 

Strip = Remove this number of digits

 

“JUST TELL ME HOW TO MAKE A CALL PLEASE...”

 

Most U.S. residents take for granted that the way they dial numbers in their region is the same way it is done everywhere. However, all North American calling is done using eleven (11) digits. It's just that some phone equipment adds digits for you so you only have to dial seven (7) digits or perhaps ten (10) digits. Rather than fight a religious war about how to implement dialing, we let you, the customer, decide! As long as you send us eleven digits for a North American call, we are going to try and send your call where it should go. That means we need to recieve:

 

Sample 1 (Non-Geek Speak): 15550005555 (broken up for readability would be: 1-555-000-5555)

 

Sample 2 (Phone Geek Speak): 1NXXNXXXXXX (1-NPA-NXX-XXXX)

 

Calls sent in the format above should generally work if it is a valid number you are dialing

 

BAD SAMPLE 1: 5550005555 (You forgot the “1” you could put it in the “Prepend” field on your system)

BAD SAMPLE 2: 0005555 (You forgot the “1” and the area code you could put them in the “Prepend” field on your system )

BAD SAMPLE 3: 915550005555 (You added a “9” you may need to put this in the “Strip” or “Prefix” field on your system)

BAD SAMPLE 4: 5555 (We have no idea what you are doing)

 

“I DID THIS AND IT'S STILL NOT WORKING!!!!”

 

1. Did you dial one of the following area codes?

a. 907 (Alaska)

b. 808 (Hawaii)

c. 867 (Northwest Territories)

 

Then you need to enable “US 50 and Canada” dialing on the “International Calling” tab in your SIPTRUNK.com Portal. You will be charged per minute for these calls.

 

2. Did you dial one of the following area codes?

a. 787 (Puerto Rico)

b. 939 (Puerto Rico)

c. 809, 829, 849 (Dominican Republic)

d. 649, 242, 441, 876, 345...et al (Various Caribbean islands)

 

Then you will need to enable “International Default Worldwide” dialing on the “International Calling” tab in your SIPTRUNK.com Portal. You will be charged per minute for these calls.

 

3. If you are certain your call is in the US 48 or Canada and it still doesn't seem to be going through, you may want to test it on your cell phone to see if it's a valid number. If it's valid and it's not going through, open a support ticket and we'll take a look and see what's going on.

 

“What about International Calls?”

 

International calling is done on a per minute basis and the rates vary by locality called. You can check the rates under the “International Calling” tab in your SIPTRUNK.com Portal. However, dialing is a bit different from what you may be used to:

 

1. We do not need 011 to make your international call. So if you are seeing “011NXXNXXXXXX” in your CDR at SIPTRUNK.com, and the call is failing, we need you to strip the 011 from your dial pattern. For instance, a call to Mexico should look like:

 

526241431234 (Broken out for readability: 52-624-143-1234)

 

The wrong way is:

 

BAD EXAMPLE: 011526241431234 (011-52-624-143-1234)

 

 

“I KNOW MY INTERNATIONAL CALL IS CORRECT BUT IT STILL FAILS!”

 

We blacklist calls to certain countries where fraud is prevalent (e.g. North Korea, Cuba, Egypt). The blacklist can be removed from your account, however, we will require you to sign a document saying you will accept charges for all international calls on your account whether they are fraudulent or legitimate. Open a support ticket to begin that process

 

Our Parting Gift to YOU:

 

Some sample dial patterns for general use:

 

PREPEND STRIP DIGITS DIALED HUMAN MEANING

 

1 NXXNXXXXXX Dial 10 Digits and add a 1

1404 NXXXXXX Dial 7 Digits and add a 1 and 404

1NXXNXXXXXX Dial 11 Digits

011 . Dial 011 and any number, remove 011

. Dial any amount of digits

! Dial anything

NXX Dial 200-999 (think 911 or 411)

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