What Could Cause Dropped Calls? -- Using CallCentric

Hi y’all. I have a question. Do you know what could hang-ups like dropped calls on cell phone? I did a test call to 1-777-123-4567 and I am able to use the service long enough that I thought I could confirm that the one who’s causing hang-ups isn’t me. I can still keep going after 5 minutes.

For example, I placed a call to my mom’s cell phone to leave a voicemail in case my mom did not answer her cell phone. While in midst of leaving her a voicemail, I got hung up for no reason.

My mom uses Verizon and she’s in Altha, FL, which is west of Tallahassee and east of Pensacola, FL. Altha is a rural town. I’m in Orlando, FL. My calls did not drop when my mom called me about a couple of times. I checked the coverage for Altha, FL, but they all show red, which led me to believe my mom does get signal in her cell phone. She’s with Alltel before the acquisition.

My softphone that I use is X-Lite 3.0.

I am running Asterisk 1.4.28 in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.

Here’s my outgoing (no incoming) settings for CallCentric (note that I patched G.722 in Asterisk 1.4.28):

context=from-pstn host=callcentric.com fromdomain=callcentric.com username=1777MYCCID fromuser=1777MYCCID defaultuser=1777MYCCID secret=**** type=peer insecure=port,invite allow=ulaw&g722 disallow=all

My register string is in a format of 1777MYCCID:Password@callcentric.com/1777MYCCID

Here’s what I have in /etc/asterisk/sip_custom.conf:

context=from-pstn srvlookup=yes session-timers=refuse session-expires=180 session-minse=90 session-refresher=uas

Is there anything I can do in my end to prevent dropped calls? In short, for outgoing calls I make to my mom’s cell phone, everytime my mom answers the phone or Verizon’s voicemail takes over for her to leave a voicemail, after about 30 seconds, my call drops. Incoming calls doesn’t seem to be affected, since I’m able to talk longer in the phone. My call did not drop if I dial a 1-777 number, like 1-777-123-4567, which connects me to the “Tell Me” service.

I think it may be very tough for any Asterisk users to figure this out but I don’t know what to do. Could it have something to do with session-timers, session-expires, session-minse, and session-refresher as taken from the CallCentric’s support page? It’s in Asterisk/FreePBX.

–Grayson Peddie

Update: I clarified the subject about what could cause dropped calls. I will attempt to make a phone call to my family and show the output of what’s going on.

You would have to see who is initiating the hang up. Can you do “sip set debug” (without the quotes) and post the results here. If your system is hanging up you have to look at the configuration. If your carrier is initiating the hang up you need to ask them why they are doing it.

Call Centric has excellent tech support… I highly recommend them to anybody looking for an inexpensive provider ( callcentric.com/?aid=112532 ).

I suggest you send in request to their support… they have helped me fix numerous issues with Asterisk and making it work with their system.