[Asterisk-Users] Will queueing only work after answering a call?

[Rich Adamson]

> I would like to implement the easiest and most simple form of a queue for 
> my home PBX.
> 
> I have several phones, and some of them may be unavailble or disconnected 
> for various reasons. Currently if one of the phones in the dialplan are 
> disconnected * will transfer the call to voicemail immediately.
> 
> For this reason I would like to implement a simple queue with ringall 
> strategy but, the wiki says that * answers the call first.
> 
> In Holland calls are not free and a connection charge applies which means 
> that every party calling us will be billed for the called even if we are 
> not at home.
> 
> Can call queue be used without answering the call first, to keep my 
> friends and relatives happy :)
> 
> All of the examples and docs in the Wiki are based on corporate use and 
> will answer the call first.
> 
> In case anyone would have an example config of such use of the queues 
> I would be most grateful :)

You might take a look at doing something like this instead of a queue:

[globals]
PHONE1=SIP/3000
PHONE2=SIP/3001
PHONE3=SIP/3002
PHONE4=SIP/3003

[incoming-calls]
exten => s,1,Dial(${PHONE1}&${PHONE2}&${PHONE3}&${PHONE4},20)    
exten => s,2,Voicemail(u3000)
exten => s,102,Voicemail(b3000)
exten => s,103,Hangup

The above will cause all four phones to ring and whichever one answers
the call first gets the call. If no one answers, then a voicemail is
left in mailbox 3000.

>From the telco perspective, the call is not answered until someone picks
up a phone or until the voicemail msg kicks in after 20 seconds of
ringing.

If you want to make that slightly more personalized, then replace
priority 2 with IVR code to say something like... press 1 for xxx,
press 2 for yyy, etc.