[asterisk-users] USB Cordless

[Gordon Henderson]

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007, Jeremy Mann wrote:

> Does anyone know if X-Ten or SJPhone support multiple cordless handsets 
> for multiple lines?  I have an office with multiple roaming 
> users(nurses) that are in and out.  I'd like to provide them telephones, 
> and my idea is to have a PC sitting in a corner somewhere running a 
> softphone client.  When a nurse comes in she just picks up any available 
> handset(anywhere from 2-5 per office) and starts calling.  Each handset 
> would be labeled with their extension so that if any inbound calls came 
> to them they'd be able to let the receptionist know their extension.

> Any ideas?

You might get away with running multiple copies of the soft-phone, telling 
each copy which USB sound device to use (and a different local port, 
probably)

But since you'll then have 2-5 base stations, why don't you just get 2-5 
SIP DECT phones + base stations such as the Siemens C460IP? then you can 
do-away with the PC altogether, and with clever dial-plan programming, 
each nurse could grab a phone, "log on" to the system, entering their real 
extension number via some star code on the phone they've just picked up, 
which the system then directs to the phone they are carrying.

So each nurse gets their own real extension and each phone also has a real 
extension number, and they keep it all the time, and just tell the system 
which phone they are on. Sort of like a divert which you initiate from the 
remote phone rather than your normal desk phone, or a follow-me type of 
application.

I implement this so that people can work anywhere where there is a phone 
connected to the system - they pick up a handset, key in the star code, 
then their voicemail PIN, then all calls to their own extension are 
diverted to the extension of the phone in their hand. They don't even need 
to know the extension number of the phone they are holding. Great for 
hot-desking.

> Also, is it possible to transfer a call directly to someone's VM(if they 
> are out of the office) bypassing their extension?  If so, could someone 
> post the asterisk logic behind the extension setup?  I don't want 
> anything too complex(like setting the DND or phone to busy).

Have the Dial instruction with a time-out, followed by a call to 
Voicemail. Or implement a code that the extension user can key in to 
activate a permenent divert to VM which is then checked in the dial-plan.

So at it's simplest, go to VM after 15 seconds:

   exten => 123,1,Dial(SIP/123,15)
   exten => 123,n,Voicemail(123,us)

To get the effect you're after, assimng some receptionist knows the 
otherperson is out of the office, then you might want to add an extra 
digit to the dialplan to immediately sent to VM, so:

   exten => 123#,1,Voicemail(123,us)

and the operator would transfer the caller to 123# ...

(make sure the operators phone can dial a trailing #!)

Gordon