[Asterisk-biz] asterisk as outbound dialer only

[mattf]

The only Asterisk consultants that claim to have any kind of answering
machine detection is aheeva, and I've never been able to actually get any
stats out of them as to how successful their method is. Answering machine
detection is very hard to do better than 50%(and getting that good takes a
lot of processing power in the Asterisk platform). Even the big boys(Avaya,
Davox, etc...) can't do better than 70-80% answering machine detection.

As for scheduling automated calls, that is easily accomplished with asterisk
and a simple Database.

As for thousands/millions of calls, what kind of time frame are you talking
about for these calls?
	how many per day? what calling hours?

Number of simultaneous calls is really dependant upon how many
channels/bandwidth you have and how many Asterisk servers you have. in
theory it is limitless if you have enough money.

Determining Busy, ring-no-answer, fax, disconnects and invalid numbers can
all be determined by running small recordings of the calls through a fast
sphinx filter. you can get at least 90% accuracy with this method even in
the very fast and dirty sphinx audio-to-speach mode. and there is plenty of
time during non-business hours to process tens of thousands of calls per
server at night.

Will you be sending callerid out on these calls with a number for people to
call you back for more information?

MATT---


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Johnson [mailto:dd_jjohnson at msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 5:38 PM
To: asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-biz] asterisk as outbound dialer only


I am pursuing using Asterisk as a tool to queue up phone calls to businesses

to verify if a number is working, disconnected, a fax, etc. This would be 
done strictly as an automated, unmanned operation with results stored in a 
database. The application would search our database for phone numbers to 
verify, place the call, and would determine whether the number is working 
and flag the database accordingly. Ideally, it would tell the difference 
between an answering machine and a human. If an answering machine is 
reached, it may just hang up and log the status as a working number that had

an answering machine. Can Asterisk do this?

If a human answers we may either play a polite 'sorry wrong number' message 
or ask that they verify certain information (i.e., press 1 to confirm that 
your business name is 'ABC Company').

So, my questions are:
- Is Asterisk a recommended application for:
   - scheduling automated phone calls to thousands/millions (?) of numbers
   - determining and flagging the status of a given phone number (i.e., 
whether it is active, disconnected, a fax, etc.)
- Can it tell the difference between a live human answering and an answering

machine/voicemail
- What is the range of bandwidth that it will take up? (Assume a 10-second 
call once connected).
- Is there a limit to the number of simultaneous calls that can take place? 
We would be doing the verification from a co-location that has virtually 
unlimited up/download.

We will keep a log of businesses that want to opt out (i.e., press 2 to 
remove your phone number from further verification efforts) to avoid any 
legal troubles.

Any input you have on any of these topics would be well received.

Also, if anyone has a track record as a proven consultant and wishes to bid 
on programming for this project, we can put together details and discuss.

We don't need most of the bells and whistles that asterisk comes with (i.e.,

call forwarding, dial by name, incoming calls), so many of the features 
would be unused.

Thank you!


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