[Asterisk-Users] Detecting Fax and bad CDRs

[Matthew Boehm]

Here is the current scenario:

Someone calls my DID. It comes in on PRI. I do "Answer()" then "Wait(1)" to
see if there is a fax tone. If there is, goto fax context and do the fax
thing.

If no fax tone, then "Dial(SIP/myphone,30)". If I don't answer in the 30
seconds, goto Voicemail.

However! If the person were to hangup before the 30 seconds expired, the
channel would get hung up but the disposition in the CDR (along with the
billable seconds) would be inaccurate because I "Answer'd" the call
beforehand.

Is there a way to change the disposition and the billable seconds to more
accurately reflect what happened?

This really is only a big deal for inbound 800 calls; because if I answer
the call and it is a person and they hang up before voicemail picks up, I
have to charge the customer for those 10-15 seconds. Plus, I give customers
the ability to see their "missed" calls, which is based on a 0 billable
seconds duration in the CDR.

Is there no better way to detect fax other than "answering" the call in the
dialplan?

Thanks,
Matthew