[asterisk-users] Bizarre international call problem.

[David Backeberg]

> My outbound dialing rule was incredibly complex:
> exten => _X.,1,Dial(${PASSTHROUGHTRUNK}/${EXTEN})
>
> And everything seemed to be working ducky, until I went to call Germany
> and got -- a local cell phone number.  Needless to say, this puzzled me
> greatly.  A quick look at my log, though, showed that all calls dialed
> with "011" were being submitted from the PBX to the Asterisk box without
> the "011".  (Ironically, if I dial the number with "011011" in front, it
> goes through fine.)
>
> So I'm confused: any ideas on how this worked when the PBX was hooked
> straight to the PSTN?

I seem to end up answering these 'PoS legacy PBX' questions, so here goes...

You have handsets connected to your proprietary PBX. Most domestic
things you dial on your proprietary PBX handsets get passed directly
through to your asterisk box without getting mangled by your
proprietary PBX. International calls that are prefixed by 011 are
getting mangled by your proprietary PBX. Are you already getting to
what I'm going to suggest?

Modify your proprietary PBX to not mangle your international calls.

Asterisk is doing what its told when it gets a proper number to dial,
as you demonstrated by your extra 011 padding work-around. Your
problem is not with Asterisk, your problem is with your PBX. You could
even have your workaround be to buy a VoIP hard phone, hook it to your
Asterisk, and have people dial internationally with that phone. Then
buy some more VoIP hard phones, and stop buying any more handsets for
your proprietary PBX. Do that a few more times, then put your
proprietary PBX on eBay.

Problem solved ;)