[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk forwarding confirmation?

[Jeff Buchbinder]

Hi; I've been using Asterisk for a few months now, and I have run into
an interesting issue that I thought someone else in the community may
have run into:

I have an Asterisk install set up to receive helpdesk calls, route
them to several IAX extensions and an extension which is simply a
forwarded call over the POTS to a cellphone, so that if no one is
logged into their IAX extensions for whatever reason, the call would
go to a cellphone. Ideally, I'd like it to move onto the next part of
the dialplan if the cellphone isn't answered.

Unfortunately, it turns out that most (if not all cellphones) have
voicemail, which appears to Asterisk as though it had connected with a
person, and it then connects the call. I had wanted to put in a small
AGI application (or something similar) which asked for a single
keypress to confirm that someone had actually picked up the phone
call, but it seems as though using an AGI script would simply prompt
the caller. Has anyone else had this sort of problem, and is there a
way around other than creating call files and attempting to connect
them with the incoming call?

Thanks,
Jeff Buchbinder
(rufustfirefly at gmail.com)