[asterisk-users] Nerdvittle's Reminders and Zaptel

[John McCollough]

I am attempting to implement Nerdvittle's Call Reminders on my *
1.2.12.1 PBX.  It has 8 Zaptel trunks provided by 2 Digium TDM400P
cards.

If I use the call reminders internally, it works flawlessly.  The
problem happens when I set the call-back number to an external number so
that the call goes out the Zaptel trunk.  The reminder message starts
playing before the person being called picks up the phone.  As a result,
the person picks up the phone and either hears only part of the message
or just gets the menu prompt.

What appears to be happening is that the reminder script simply waits
for a connected call, then starts playing it's message, but * reports a
connected call when it connects to the trunk, not when the other party
picks up.  The result is the message starts playing while the remote
phone is still ringing.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to work around this
problem.  The only thing I can think of that is within my ability is to
repeatedly play a prompt to press a number to hear the message.
However, this is not a good solution since this system is going to be
used to automate patient appointment reminders, and I don't want it
sounding like a sales call that will cause people to just hang up
without listening first.  My other thought is to perhaps wait until it
hears a word spoken, but I don't know how to do that and have the system
distinguish between a spoken word and the sound of the ring indicator.
Of course, I'm open to any other suggestions as well.

John