Issues when forwarding external calls to an external destination

Hi everyone,

I’ve been having this problem for a while. I have set up a DID as an inbound route. I have set the destination as a misc destination, that points to a cell phone. When I call the DID, the call forwards to the cell phone. The call automatically answers after 2 rings, then after a slight delay, you start to hear the destination cellphone ring.

Is it possible to have the call not be answered by the PBX, until the destination number connects, then the call forwards?

I would like to have it set up in a way where the caller calls the DID number, until the destination cell phone answers the call first, then the caller gets connected.

Your help is much appreciated, thank you in advance.

It sounds to me as though either the mobile network is answering early, or you are confusing early media with an actual answer.

Are you trying to avoid the caller being billed, or are you trying to hide the fact that the call is forwarded.

For the latter, there is an Asterisk option, that may or may not be exposed in FreePBX.

I don’t want the caller to see that the call get answered and it’s still ringing. It’s not really a billing issue, but I would like to mask how the call is being handled.

What makes you think it is answered, rather than passing ringing as early media?

A Misc Destination does not, by itself, answer the call. Possibly you have something on the Inbound Route such as Fax Detection that is answering. Or, if the outbound leg is using an analog trunk, the gateway may not be able to know when the outgoing call is answered and is signaling answer after a fixed time.

To determine which leg has the problem, call the target cell phone directly from an internal extension. If the internal phone shows answer before the target phone is picked up, the problem is with the outbound leg.

Let us know what you find, and what kind of trunks you are using (analog, PRI, SIP, etc.).

If the destination cell phone is a smartphone and in a good coverage area, routing to a SIP app (instead of a cellular voice call) would avoid the false answer.

Another option is to use follow-me with Call Confirmation (the call isn’t connected until the recipient presses 1). While this ensures that the original caller won’t hear the cell phone’s voicemail or an out-of-range announcement from the mobile operator, it is unfortunately unsafe for the recipient if he is driving.

Thank you so much all for your help everyone.

The issue seemed to be resolved after turning fax detection off. Thank you once again.

Now, I’m going to try setting up call confirm, hopefully it works, no issues.

I am setting up follow me and would like follow me to call the misc destination. I would like confirm calls to be enabled. When I set up follow me, I have problems getting call confirm to work. When I answer the call, it answers right away.