Hi Folks,
I’ve read that Asterisk can forward calls to other numbers; forwarding among the local extensions is not the issue for this question. My current phone system can “forward” a call but it does so in a primitive way – in allows me to hold the incoming call, dial the destination number on a second line and “conference” the two. This means that I spend two lines, one incoming and one outgoing, to forward a call.
Does Asterisk use this technique, or can Asterisk actually redirect the incoming call at the PSTN without committing two of my lines? And, of course, now that I’ve written the question, it appears unlikely, but not impossible, that Asterisk can make requests of the PSTN so my suspicion is that Asterisk will also commit two lines to a forwarded call.
This is an important question, because if I plan to give everybody a cell phone, then forwarding to the cell phone will cost me two lines, one incoming to Asterisk and one outgoing to the cell tower, unless there is another way to do that that I don’t see.
Thanks for the help,
Chris.