Display number the call was forwarded from

Asterisk Asterisk General
1

Hi,

I am setting up a call answering service. Essentially, my clients will set their phone number to forward to my number so any calls they receive during specific times will be forwarded to my business.

What I need, is a system where upon receiving the call, before answering the phone, I can see which client the call is meant for so that I can answer with the proper greeting.

For example:
My phone number: 111-111-1111
My customer’s (Dr. Smith) number: 222-222-2222
Someone calls 222-222-2222 which gets forwarded to me (111-111-1111). On my softphone, when the phone rings, it says “Call coming in for 222-222-2222” and I can answer the phone “Hi, Dr. Smith’s office”

Can you please confirm if this is possible with asterisk?

Also, I assume this will require a special softphone that can receive this custom info from asterisk (example: “call is meant for Client A”). Any suggestions on a softphone that can do this?

Thanks.

2

Hi

You just get users to forward to a specific number that then has the caller ID name set as you describe.

You may be able to use his incoming callerID but more than likely it will be set as the original callers.

We have many customers doing this

Ian

3

Thanks Ian for the reply.

We don’t want to get multiple phone numbers for ourselves. We anticipate having many customers and getting a phone number for each of our clients would be quite costly. This is why we need to know what number the caller dialed so we can see which of our clients is receiving the phone call.

I have read that this can be done, but I have yet to see any software say that it can do it.

4

Hi

Your “customers” havent dialed you, They have diverted their phone to you. and as such the DNIS may not be reliable, THas if the carrier you use will supply it.

As I Said we have provided systems to customers that supply these services and they all use a dedicated local number for each customer and the cost is paid for by the customer. if your price model hasnt include the $2-$5 per customer for thier own number then you may need to relook at your costings.

5

I didn’t realize the numbers would be so cheap.

Is there a softphone that would display which number they were forwarded to? Or is that what you meant by “has the caller ID name set as you describe”? Does that mean I would set my server to change the Caller ID based on which number it came in on?