[asterisk-users] False answer() being sent by cellphone providers

[Kevin P. Fleming]

On 07/09/2010 12:33 PM, Mike Ely wrote:
> On 7/9/10 10:29 AM, "Mike Ely" <mikeely at amyskitchen.net> wrote:
> 
>> Some of the systems blokes might just figure that¹s another collections agent
>> and hang up then ;)
>>
>>
>> On 7/9/10 10:09 AM, "Steve Edwards" <asterisk.org at sedwards.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 9 Jul 2010, Mike Ely wrote:
>>>
>>>>> I've set up an outbound alerting system to play a recording when systems go
>>>>> down, etc. and I'm noticing that cellphones tend to answer() and then start
>>>>> ringing the actual handset.  So far, I've verified this behavior with
>>>>> Verizon, T-Mobile, and Google Voice (the last produces a SERIOUS delta
>>>>> between bogus answer and actual answer).
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone figured out how to detect the actual cellphone answer rather
>>>>> than 
>>>>> the bogus one sent by the cell carrier?  In the short term, I just have the
>>>>> call play MOH for ten seconds before announcing that all hell has broken
>>>>> loose in the server room, but it¹d be nice to have something a bit more
>>>>> accurate and reliable.
>>>
>>> How about a loop with "Please press pound to continue?"
>>
>>
> Sorry, bad joke.  In all seriousness though, is there not a way to detect
> this behavior and handle the answer() correctly?

The Dial() application can already play an announcement to the called
party and wait for them to confirm the call before accepting that the
outbound channel is 'answered'. This allows your dialplan to go on to
another party to call if the first does not actually accept the call.

This is useful both in the case you describe, and when the outbound call
gets delivered to voicemail, since that appears to be 'answered' at the
network level as well.

-- 
Kevin P. Fleming
Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA
skype: kpfleming | jabber: kfleming at digium.com
Check us out at www.digium.com & www.asterisk.org